Muscat’s pay includes honorarium – PM

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday claimed The Times " got it wrong" when it reported that the Opposition Leader was the only MP not to be paid for his parliamentary duties.

Leader of the Opposition Joseph Muscat's salary is simply a higher honorarium than that received by MPs, according to the Prime Minister. The Times this week revealed that Joseph Muscat never received the "double salary" he had been promised – which he had vowed to donate to charity.

Dr Gonzi now says Dr Muscat's parliamentary honorarium is " included" in his Opposition Leader's salary which is simply a higher honorarium than that received by MPs.

But the government had previously said that Dr Muscat would receive an honorarium over and above his salary. This decision was taken by Cabinet in May 2008 – shortly after the election – when it was decided that ministers and parliamentary secretaries would keep their MP honorarium. ( It also decided the honorarium would be increased, a decision that was later reversed following public outcry.)

The decision was only announced officially last December in response to a parliamentary question , when Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said: " Cabinet decided on May 5, 2008 that the Prime Minister, Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, the Speaker and the Opposition Leader will no longer lose the honoraria, which is paid to other MPs."

Dr Gonzi now says Dr Muscat is "not a government employee" and, therefore, only deserves his salary, which incorporates his wage for parliamentary duties.

However, even the Speaker is entitled to an honorarium over and above his salary.

In fact, former Speaker Louis Galea had been paid an honorarium during his short term, while current Speaker Michael Frendo was given the option of retaining his honorarium but instead chose to keep his private sector job, which is what Speakers normally do.

As things stand, the Opposition Leader is paid a basic salary of € 38,000, the Prime Minister earns € 76,000, ministers are paid €69,000 and parliamentary secretaries earn € 67,000.

The Times yesterday asked the Office of the Prime Minister whether such a discrepancy made sense (since before 2008 the salaries of the Opposition Leader and ministers were practically equal).

A spokesman simply said: " In January this issue was referred to the House Business Committee. As already stated, no agreement has been reached and hence the case is now closed."

Interestingly, there was no agreement in the House Business Committee because the government wanted to restrict the discussions to whether the honoraria of MPs should be raised but the opposition wanted to widen the discussion to the revision of salaries for all politicians – including that of ministers, parliamentary secretaries and the Opposition Leader.

Meanwhile, Dr Muscat told The Times that Dr Gonzi was not denying him the money because he had never intended to keep it. " But he is denying charities that would have received it," he said.

Dr Muscat was expected to get more than € 130,000 over five years and should have received the money backdated.

He added that while the Prime Minister and his Cabinet gave themselves a raise of almost € 500 per week, the public was only given € 1.16 increase.

He said the government had tried to include him in their decision to give themselves a raise but the hypocrisy had now become clear.