They spent five years shouting about ‘hames mitt euro fil-gimgha’ and now the finance minister says that the salary paid to cabinet ministers is “insulting”

Published: October 8, 2013 at 10:43am

edward scicluna

What a bunch of false and manipulative individuals this government is turning out to be, to have been all along. The Finance Minister has given an interview to Malta Today, in which he says that the small amount cabinet ministers are paid is “insulting” and that there will be discussions on paying them more, but not in Labour’s “first legislature”.

If he thinks that what ministers are paid is so very bad, so insulting, then Edward Scicluna should have had the MORAL FIBRE to stand up and say so when his party was campaigning like obsessed and fixated sickos about the increase in ministerial salaries five years ago.

Instead he went along with it, keeping his mouth shut, having no doubt taken the pragmatic view that needs must when the devil drives and if that’s what it takes to get into government – stirring up the anger and envy of the popolin with false arguments and partial information – then so be it.

But now he’s on that pay-roll himself and he’s complaining. Well, tough luck, sir – you and yours brought it on yourselves. It’s part of the price you’re paying for having got in there in the first place.

“From my position in life, I can afford giving five years of service to the country without counting the euros… but obviously I am insulted at the salary a minister gets,” Scicluna told MaltaToday when pointing out how government chief executives are paid standard salaries of €65,000.

“Cabinet salaries must be reviewed in a proper and pre-announced manner. If we want to attract good people to government, if we want a new generation of good people to govern us, we need to pay higher salaries. They needn’t be higher than those in the private sector. Even members of the Obama administration left the private sector for a cut in their salaries to serve their country.”




29 Comments Comment

  1. Zunzana Blu says:

    What a bunch of hypocrites, the lot of them.

  2. Il-Kajboj says:

    During the 500 Ewro fil-gimgha campaign the Professor of Inderect Taxation kien qed jerda mill-gravy train ta’ Brussells… minghand dawk li riedu jaghmlu partnership maghhom. Oqbra mbajjda!

  3. Joe Fenech says:

    “If he thinks that what ministers are paid is so very bad, so insulting, then Edward Scicluna should have had the MORAL FIBRE to stand up ….”

    Do you realistically think anyone in Malta will contradict a party’s mantra? Those are the kind of politicians Malta has…

  4. Joseph Caruana says:

    “If we want a new generation of good people to govern us, we need to pay higher salaries,” to logic sense this statement is a proof that those governing are everything else except good people to govern.

    So much for pre-election pledges.

    Actually I am feeling for those that got cheated by their lack of judgement. Not.

  5. Vagabond King says:

    They need a pay increase right away, otherwise how can Twanny il-Bronka pay his loan? How can Franco Mercieca make up the lost revenue from his eye operations. How can Emperor Mallia increase his cash horde at home?

    What a bunch of hypocrites.

  6. La Redoute says:

    ” if we want a new generation of good people to govern us, we need to pay higher salaries.”

    That’s an admission that the government ministers are rubbish. I couldn’t agree more.

  7. curious says:

    We are trusting this hypocrite with the country’s finances. Way to go, Malta.

  8. AG says:

    Unbelievable. I’d like to see how Super One reports this.

    • viva n nort koreja says:

      I can tell you. Headline:

      ‘PL MP’s to take pay-cut of €10,000 and donate the money to the needy, the LGBT movement, the environment and the rest will go to strengthening democracy in Malta after 25 years of EUU-sponsored poverty, corruption and rampant abuse’.

      Those reds will believe anything.

  9. Francis Saliba MD says:

    Edward Scicluna is omitting to consider the fringe benefits that Labour Movement ministers enjoy. For example one can mention the privilege of turning back the Gozo ferry when they miss the boat, having workers suspended from their livelihood and the scandal being “closed” by the prime minister without the need to tell the public how and why.

    Was it because the ferry boat was actually turned round or was it because ix-Xitan had to be inconvenienced and he had to intervene before Scicluna’s fellow LP cabinet minister could be preferentially accommodated?

  10. gigi says:

    Please take that because that is what you gambled for and that is what the most voted for.

  11. cikku l-poplu says:

    Jekk is-salarju ta’ ministru Scicluna qed jarah insult mela kemm ghandhom ihossuhom insultati l-votanti li dahqu bihom ibda minn Scicluna innifsu li l-ministri ta’ gvern Nazzjonalista kellom ragun.

    Lanqas qatt ma kont nippretendi minn agir miskin bhal dan – kont naghmlu aktar serju. Ghalija Scicluna sar jaghmel parti mill-iskip tal-PL.

  12. EVC says:

    Naf li kull min jahdem irid jithallas imma li tghid li biex ikollok nies fil-gvern tajba iridu jithallsu tajjeb ifisser li ibda min Scicluna stess ghalhekk qieghed hemm ghal flus u mhux ghal gid tal-pajjiz. Ma jafx dan u shabu li, li tkun ministru tfisser li trid isservi u mhux tisserva? Imma d-dizzjunarju ghat-tfal tal-iskola qieghed biss. Imissu jisthi jitkellem hekk issa wara dak it-tajjir kollu minnhom u min hafna pappagalli li qalu bhalhom.

  13. AE says:

    So now he is speaking sense. He is absolutely right that the salaries that Ministers are paid are an insult – but wasn’t it also an insult when Cabinet Ministers were members of the nationalist party? What an absolute hypocrite. Gonzi got seriously slated for the Eur500 a week raise that Cabinet ministers were given and a LP went through a whole charade to give the impression that it was done without their knowledge.

    But then we know full well that Muscat has found his own way of making sure that he get paid handsomely, and has shown how ministers how to do it. Rent your car to the state, have your wife on the payroll, and that’s the bit we know about. Ask Konrad Mizzi – he has certainly followed his example and learnt the lesson well.

  14. Josette says:

    They’re all Dom’s children. He won over his followers by stirring their envy against the rest.

    He understood that finally what makes a lot of people tick is envy and covetousness. He also often said that people soon forget.

    They are just following his example, stirring all the negative emotions possible and then having the cheek of accusing others of negativity. And their people applaud them.

  15. Claude Sciberras says:

    Yes , I agree that the ministers’ salaries are insulting but what is more insulting is the way Scicluna crusades against the increase in Opposition and then complains about his low salary in government.

  16. P Shaw says:

    If Scicluna i scomparing himself to Lara Boffa, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, and the like, I can’t blame him for feeling insulted at the salary that they are getting for doing practically nothing.

    Having said that, he is part and parcel of the mess that made all these decisions: the decision to sabotage the ministerial salary increase, the decision to retain JPO as chairman, and the decision to recruit people like Lara Boffa.

  17. Paul Bonnici says:

    Of course he would say that, he was on the EU gravy train before, he had a massive drop in income and perks.

  18. observer says:

    ‘Dear’ (tanto per, and as an act of common courtesy only) Dr Scicluna, it does not take ‘higher salaries’ at all for the Maltese ‘to have good people to govern us’.

    All we need is good people. Can you and your comrades be counted amongst these?

    Ai posteri l’ardua sentenza? Maybe not, after all!

  19. I remember Joseph Muscat saying in an interview that he had warned all his team in advance….and assured the public he would not take the salary increase. Scicluna was probably in disagreement like the rest of the crew. What lack of integrity.

  20. TROY says:

    And then we had the switchers, ghax taf int, riedu l-bidla.

  21. We are living in Financial Times says:

    Is this another pair of cold feet? I hope so. People like Edward Scicluna have worked hard for their reputation and career, no matter their political leanings.

    How does he feel now to have had his reputation, and career, hijacked by a 40-year-old jerk who never had an honest political thought in his life? Unless he knew all the details of course.

    What goes around comes around.

  22. Tracy says:

    Nahseb qed jiddispjacieh li telaq minn Brussels ghax hemm kien jaqla’ aktar.

    Meta jrid jista’ jitlaq, hadd ma baghat ghalih.

  23. fifth horseman of the apocalypse says:

    I agree wholeheartedly with Edward Scicluna. Current cabinet salaries attract only third rate, incompetent fools to government.

  24. wardaddoqq says:

    These people gauge efficient administration by the hoard one has. By these standards we should haveng the most competent government ever, given the cabinet is almost entirely composed of millionaires.

  25. Frans Cassar says:

    What a bunch of hypocrites.

  26. kjd says:

    What Minister Scicluna did not say is that this cabinet is twice the size or thereabouts of the previous cabinet and therefore has half the workload.

    And yet he’s still fussing and complaining.

    Should the previous administration have felt doubly insulted? It would be interesting to know, once he has decided to broach the subject, what he thinks an appropriate salary will be.

  27. Nick says:

    Obviously Edward feels he has to make good for the income he gave up to become a politician. This country is run by clowns and hypocrites.

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