Even if we paid George Vella the minimum wage, it would be a bloody waste of money
That’s rich: the man who withdrew our application to join the European Union, criticising the pay package of the man who got us in, and calling it ‘scandalous’.
What I consider scandalous is the fact that the man who said, on record, ‘Allahares nidhlu l-Ewropa’ is now our foreign minister again. That’s some brass neck.
Why didn’t he have the good grace and common decency to just disappear after all that, after being voted out in 1998, voted against in 2003 and the referendum, voted against again in 2008?
No, he comes bouncing back, eyebrows ablaze, at 71 – straight back into the cabinet post he held when he was so rudely interrupted by a swing of around 20,000 votes in 22 months, almost 17 years ago.
George Vella’s real beef with Richard Cachia Caruana is not how much he was paid, but that he successfully negotiated Malta’s entry into the European Union – against George Vella’s express wish.
How dared he do what Vella was so much against?
If George Vella thinks that The People did not get enough in return for their money, perhaps we should ask how much he thinks The People should have been permitted to fine him should his determined efforts to block EU membership have succeeded, leading to incalculable damage to Malta in lost income, lost opportunities and above all, lost freedom.
Instead of talking about scandal where none exists, Vella should take the time to tell us whether he regrets his visceral anti-EU stance and whether he is glad, now, that we are in the European Union.
Given that he is foreign minister (yet again), he is obliged to clear up this not insignificant matter. Malta should be told whether it has been encumbered with an anti-EU foreign minister of an EU member state.
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a post about jason please – latest development!
RCC led the team that brought home €2.5 billion for Malta – do we really care what he was getting paid?
Labour lanzit. I was so pleased that Richard Cachia Caruana got something. Serves them right. Xoghol prekarju kellu.
I feel it’s terrible that George Vella is foreign minister. He was against EU accession the last time he was foreign minister. I’m sure he’ll try to get us out of the EU now.
Ara kemm ma tafx x`int tghid u mohhok biex thammeg biss, George Vella huwa Ministru ta` l-affarijiet barranin tal-pajjizi li mhux qeghdin fl-Ewropa. Nahseb id-diskors li ghet, kollu gibtulek frak. J`alla hawn mija ohra bhat-Tabib George Vella. George Vella huwa wiehed mill-aktar nies fdati fis-south ta` Malta, u jien wiehed min dawk in-nies li nghidlu prosit lil George Vella.
Bla bla bla tabib bla bla kbir bla bla south ta’ Malta bla bla prosit bla bla viva l-lejber.
Kieku jien inkun minn tal-ewwel li nqajjem rewwixta kieku bias jithajjar johrogna. Ja qattgha cwiec.
We doesn’t George Vella tell us how much Joseph Cuschieri is earning and if he feels it’s justified
He doesn’t care. That doesn’t count. Il-poplu Malti isn’t paying that salary.
Why bother?
Whatever they say today they will deny tomorrow if the fancy takes them.
George Vella should have noted that the Government is wasting millions on some of the ministers and parliamentary secretaries.
“…eyebrows ablaze…” – epic! Labour haven’t got a clue.
https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1973VALLET02041_b.html
€239k is no mean sum, but then again look at all the land, houses and apartments we’ve given to far, far less deserving individuals who continue to sap the state dry, inspite of their incomes and accmulated wealth – undeclared in most cases.
What’s incredible about the whole RCC thing is that the bastards conveniently seem to have forgotten that it was they themselves who called for his resignation and got it thanks to that red devil spawn JPO voting with them.
So in reality it is they who cost the country €239,000, all in the good name of spite.
Another thing that riles me up is that people just don’t seem to understand that a pay packet is not decided by the PM’s mood at the time (well, it wasn’t up until the 10th of March anyway) but by a large number of economic factors.
No one is going to get paid €5900 a month unless what he is doing is earning the country more than that.
I did some simple maths and even with the severance pay, I found that seeing as RCC’s work was instrumental in the acquisition of the €1.2 billion (Gonzi said so, so I see no reason to doubt it) then every €1 paid to RCC represents a return of €3500 for the country, a sum which would have almost been tripled had JPO and his Labour friends not stuck their snouts in.
But no, it’s “Shame on you” all round, and to the wrong person.
The sooner the government screws up badly enough for people to finally open their eyes, the better.
First time comment by the way – love the blog, Daphne :)
Now, why do you think Joseph Muscat found it necessary to have a separate Ministry for European Affairs? Could you honestly see George Vella dealing with that? He would choke on it.
The man is still as avidly anti-EU as he ever was. He is aptly titled Foreign Minister, he is totally foreign to the need of Malta to be an integral part of the EU.
I’d pay RCC double that amount if he could get this lot out of government within twelve months.
Won’t have to, friend, they’ll do it all on their own.
Once month in, their arrogant incompetence is already unbelievable.
Would you be willing to wager that they’ll be out of office within twelve months? I wouldn’t. But then I never was a betting man.
Hear, hear!
That would be a most satisfying manifestation of poetic justice but we all know that it’s foolish to hope for such things in the real world.
Nothing is impossible but bringing down a government with a nice seat majority is as close as it gets.
They say RCC is a genius. If we each chip in, we could collect a decent sum and engage him to bring down this government.
Just read an article in the New York Times today that a new process, called, ‘Clarity’, has made part of the human brain transparent, so networks of neurons can be examined intact.
Would love to see what this idiot is thinking, assuming they could find a brain.
Should I laugh or cry? Don’t they even realize that Richard Cachia Caruana’s job is now split between three people – Marlene Bonnici, plus the deputy prime minister/minister for EU and a parliamentary secretary?
Total salaries including those of their staff and expenses must be at least 5 times what RCC used to get. And we’ll reserve judgement on aptitude and deliverables for the time being.
Who says Marlene Bonnici’s contract is any different? Oh but she’s a Laburista, so it’s all right.
Euro400 a day is a pittance compared to international rates for top consultants and negotiators. What would they have made of rates like Euro30,000 per day? or Euro75,000? or Euro250,000 for a 1hour intervention?
The whole of Labour, along with their late change of policy regarding the EU, should be prostrating before RCC in thanks, recognition and respect for his insights. Many of us, not least JM, owe countless developments in our own personal life to RCC and his excellent standards and achievements.
Respect, where respect is due.
What is the annual public cost of the nine or ten Super One parasitical worms?
We paid a few thousands of Euro to obtain funds from EU to the amount of 1.2 billion Euro ,and now we are spending millions of Euro on Ministers to block projects financed from these funds .
Louis Grech got as much I think for termination of contracts with Air Malta, and continued to use the airline with his family long after leaving. RCC is worth his weight in Gold.
Louis Grech got TWO golden handshakes from Air Malta. He went back to the company after taking the first one.
To think that Mario Gerada got paid almost the same amount as Cachia Caruana … for doing his job badly.
I am morally convinvced RCC’s package pales when compared to the global income or Robert Musumeci’s if you add the consultancy fees, private practice and other income.
This in the context of the output – Malta as a whole benefited from RCC’s hard work as compared to Musumeci’s opaqueness.
If it’d succeeded, George Vella’s decision in 2003 would have cost his current government Eur1.2billion.