GUEST POST/Where are the Prime Minister’s assets?

A reader who is around the same age as the Prime Minister, who built his own business, sold it and is now working in management consultancy (not in Panama) has sent in this guest contribution, raising a very important point that has been overlooked so far. He wishes to remain anonymous but is not anonymous to me.

WHERE ARE THE PRIME MINISTER’S ASSETS?

When Joseph Muscat declared his assets to parliament as Prime Minister, in 2013, I was a little bit surprised. He declared €70,000 in savings and the ownership of his home in Burmarrad, which was built on the site of his parents’ home when he was 24 and almost certainly, at that stage, funded by them because he has not declared any bank-loans to parliament.

This struck me because Muscat had been a member of the European Parliament for four years, with a substantial income and all expenses paid, and no school fees or substantial child-raising expenses. He was then Leader of the Opposition for five years, also on a sizeable salary by Maltese standards.

My instant thought was that he had already prepared the financial structures to conceal his assets.

His most recent declaration of assets, presented last year (the next is due soon, pending a solution to the Konrad Mizzi problem) was practically identical, except that his savings had increased from €70,000 to €75,000.

His annual earnings of €60,000, including €7,000 for using his own Alfa car (outrageous), and with all expenses paid except for food, clothing and school fees, have yielded just a net increase of €5,000 to his savings account in two years. And this is somebody whose only job in the private sector was at Alfred Mifsud’s Crystal Finance, advising people on how best to save money and invest it.

It strikes me as highly probable that Joseph Muscat actually prepared his offshore accounts and trusts prior to taking office, moved everything there bar enough to have at least some savings to declare in Malta, and has left it all there still. Those offshore structures will now be serving roughly the same purpose as those of his chief of staff and his energy and health minister.

The Panama Papers revelations are, it would seem, just the tip of the iceberg where the Maltese government, at least, is concerned. People out there are thinking that this is all it. But you have got to bear in mind that the Panama Papers don’t cover all of Panama or all of offshore. Those 11.5 million documents, voluminous as they are, cover the 40 years of business of just one law firm: Mossack Fonseca Panama.

Because of my prior thoughts about this matter – thoughts which began when I saw Muscat’s declaration of assets in 2013 – I was not surprised when he didn’t seem shocked or surprised by the news that his chief of staff and his health and energy minister had companies in Panama and trusts in New Zealand, which they planned to keep secret, and that – by his own admission – he did not so much as discuss their resignation.

I was not surprised when he defended them and continued to defend them, even in the face of mounting public anger. And I was not surprised when he said that he planned to spend 10 years as prime minister and then step down. He may have figured out a roadmap to early retirement.