Government salaries increase by Eur22 million over the last year
Can we know exactly how many people this government has put on the state payroll, and what sort of jobs they do? There have been the ad hoc engagements, like Miriam Dalli, who was given a consultancy post at Konrad Mizzi’s office, with a considerable fee equivalent to a top management salary, for the stop-gap year between leaving her full-time job at Vodafone Malta to have a baby and joining the European Parliament.
She was paid by the state even while she was campaigning for election. It was so obviously done to suit her purposes, and for no particular benefit to Konrad Mizzi, that the only words you can use to describe it are ‘blatantly abusive’.
Then there are those who have been put on the state payroll permanently, like those 70 cleaners famously recruited just before the EP election.
I ask because the increase in the state payroll is a significant figure at Eur22 million. The figure was given in parliament by former finance minister Tonio Fenech, and I quote Times of Malta last Wednesday:
As to government finances, Mr Fenech said these got worse as a result of the Eur22 million increase in the salaries bill due to the people that were recruited.
Who are all these people, and how many of them are there that they should have increased the government’s salaries bill by such a huge amount?
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The former government’s employment policy was to recruit internally and to recruit only one person from outside the service for every two who left.
By a process of natural attrtition, the civil service – and the payroll burden – would have been reduced.
This is not a matter of favours or partisanship. Government is by far the biggest employer in Malta. Economically, that is a huge strain even if funds are found to cover the cost.
Some ten years ago, the PN government was studying, rather extensively, how to reduce the number of civil servants because the sector was bloated, grossly inefficient, and expensive. I believe the Management Efficiency Unit was charged with the task.
This government, in its infinite wisdom, believes otherwise.
One day soon the bubble will burst. And, rather than obeying EU negotiated austerity measures, Muscat will sell (successfully) exit from the Union. He will claim that an MLP government will be able to repair all and will come up with some very outlandish amoral ideas worse than the IIP scheme.
All the progress achieved in 20 years of PN administration will unravel in the blink of an eye.
And this was one of the biggest vote loss to the PN-exactly because a lot of PN supporters who wanted a job with the government never got it.
Then they are not ‘PN supporters’, are they? Just opportunists who want the government to give them a job, period.
The PL are continuing with their trend to try and sow discord and break through the unity of the PN.
They succeeded in the last PN five years of administration.
Let us pass on the message that however much they try, they will not this time succeed.
So please forget about the words ‘humility’, people who are ‘hurt’, people who are not listened to, and move ahead with determination to secure more support for the PN.
There is no doubt that Dr. Busuttil is a thorn in the PL side and that is why they are trying to belittle him.
Agreed, the Labour Party policies were always planned around character assassination, insistent lying and spinning around the same lie.
Whether Edward Scicluna likes it or not, he has to follow Alfred Sant’s advice, namely ” ftit tbazwir ‘l-hawn u ftit tbazwir’l-hemm”.
More precisely, and, according to The Malta Independent, the government is spending twice as much as it is pulling in.
Yes, I can see that this change in government was needed.
There has been an increase of 1,500 people approximately, over a year, according to data provided by the NSO – Gainfully Occupied.
BUT – this is the increase: according to government publications, around 1,500-2000 people retire or resign from the public service each year.
This means that the increase of people on the public payroll is likely to be closer to 3,000+, in just over a year.
I agree wholeheartedly with etil’s comment. Dr. Busuttil’s poise, erudite arguments and boyish charm are a foil to the PM’s grimace/smirk/sarcastic laugh.
Government deficit reaches €238.2 million in first four months
http://www.independent.com.mt/mobile/2014-05-30/news/government-deficit-reaches-2382-million-in-first-four-months-5247827968/
Correlates directly and positively to the deficit.
It seems that after thetimesofmalta.com miss this important statistic just published today.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-05-30/news/government-deficit-reaches-2382-million-in-first-four-months-5247827968/
http://maltarightnow.com/news/2014/05/30/l-izbilanc-fil-finanzi-tal-gvern-jizdied-fl-ewwel-terz-tal-2014/
I gagged when I saw this and the complete twist as to what is actually going on. People who were, till 4 weeks ago, carers are now doing ECGs on patients, unsupervised. Essentially, what was a 3-year course has been compressed to 5 months.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-05-30/news/next-intake-of-paramedic-aides-in-september-5249662976/
It is a well know fact that care workers have taken over the hospital and hearing them ordering nurses about is a common occurrence.
Now some of these ‘entitled’ people are being given a title in five months. Is Chris Fearne another one of those doctors who thinks that for any profession (except medicine) all that is required is a pair of hands?
Poor, poor patients.
Successive Nationalist governments spent decades reducing the government state payroll.
We have all seen in recent years what effects large state payrolls can have on the economy. Just ask Greece.
In just one year a Labour government has undone years of hard work. All these decisions will come back to haunt us in the near future.
I would love to hear from some of the Sliema/Swieqi switcher crowd what they have to say about this.
“I would love to hear from some of the Sliema/Swieqi switcher crowd what they have to say about this.”
Do you really think the superficial facetious set have medium to long term consequence in mind?
I think what they had in mind was something like this:
A MEPA permit they would have had no chance of obtaining under normal circumstances; a consultancy with Government for a member of the family; etc. the “deal” made with “Joseph” when he was busy meeting those 25 upwards people per day prior to the elections.
How this effects the country doesn’t figure in such scenarios.
Il-borza ta’ Malta vs Il-borza ta’ Guda.
——–
At Easter time in Gozo, for the morning of Easter Sunday, some of the older generation still make qassatat with sultanas in the ricotta to symbolise the borza ta’ Guda.
All the promises made before the election have come to fruition, and by promises I mean all those who ended up joining Labour’s wagon cause they will stand to benefit personally at the end.
When the gas pedal gets stuck to the metal, and we can’t hold the horses no more, then maybe, just maybe, the Maltese people will realise who they REALLY voted for a year ago.
Before the election, it was already questionable how all the electoral promises could be sustained. Now the sustainability might only be for the ‘personal’ achievements made, rather than the actual realisation of the electoral promises themselves.
Four years to go…