PL MEP John Attard Montalto.

All but one of the Labour Party MEPs failed to produce their allowances and expenditure during their term in office despite the party’s commitment to transparency before the June 2009 election, whereas all former and incumbent Nationalist Party MEPs provided annual audited accounts.

Both the PN and the PL had promised more transparency before the June 2009 elections by creating a code of ethics and obliging MEPs to provide more details about the way they spend their EU allowances while in office.

When The Sunday Times of Malta asked all MEPs to provide their financial declarations since 2009, the only Labour Party MEP to provide the Code of Ethics for the last three years was John Attard Montalto.

However, he put together the figures within a couple of days to meet the newspaper’s requests.

He declared his expenditure on the party’s standard forms but his statements were not verified by auditors and no breakdown of expenses was provided.

Since 2010, John Attard Montalto said he spent €245,927 on travel. The general expenditure allowance he declared over three years amounted to €154,000, providing almost identical figures from year to year.

Labour Party deputy leader Louis Grech, an MEP until 2003, replied that the statement of expenses had been published on his website. But the information could not be found.

“Unfortunately, his website closed down when Mr Grech ceased to be an MEP. We are checking whether the data can be retrieved,” a spokesman said. No information was received by The Sunday Times of Malta.

All Nationalist MEPs gave information on expenses

PL MEPs Claudette Abela Baldacchino, Joseph Cuschieri, Marlene Mizzi and Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, who was an MEP until 2003, did not reply to the request from this newspaper.

Ms Abela Baldacchino yesterday uploaded the European Parliament’s certificate of remuneration to her website but failed to meet the PL’s code of ethics.

In contrast, all former and incumbent MEPs of the Nationalist Party produced their audited accounts within hours of the request.

They provided the party’s Transparency Commitment Forms and an Auditor’s certificate for each year. All gave details on how these funds were spent, including the names of employees.

PN leader Simon Busuttil confirmed all PN MEPs are required to publish, on an annual basis, financial statements supported by an auditor’s certificate of their correctness, relating to the amounts of parliamentary allowances that they would have received in the previous year.

“This requirement is imposed on PN MEPs by virtue of the Financial Transparency Rules for MEPs adopted by the PN executive committee in March 2009 prior to the EP election of June 2009. In turn, these rules were the party’s response to the public desire for greater transparency and scrutiny of MEPs following media campaigns to this effect,” Dr Busuttil told The Sunday Times of Malta.

In 2009, Dr Busuttil employed 10 staff, all Maltese, three on a part-time basis for a total expenditure of €76,352. In 2010, the budget for the same staff employed was €193,123 – the increase in expenditure is because it was a full year of employment. In 2011, the number of staff in Dr Busuttil’s office increased, with a total expenditure of €232,977.

Over three years, Dr Busuttil claimed an extra €110,260 under the general expenditure allowance related to office management and running costs, and just over €93,000 on travel expenses and claims.

Roberta Metsola provided audited accounts for her first year in office since she took over Dr Busuttil’s seat in the European Parliament in 2013.

She employed 12 staff, mostly Maltese, at a cost of €202,401 including recruitment, subsistence and salaries. Almost €52,000 was spent on office management and running costs as well as representational activities, and her travel expenses and allowances totalled close to €61,500 in a year.

David Casa’s office employed 10 staff in 2011, half of them on a full-time basis at a total expenditure of €243,415. His staff complement went down to seven personnel over the next two years, with a total expenditure of €248,322 and €268,748 respectively.

The perks and allowances of the European Parliament are far from transparent. An MEP’s salary is almost €8,000 a month. On top of that they can claim up to €4,243 per year on travel.

For costs related to running an office in their home country they get an allowance of up to €4,299 per month – for that they do not need to provide any receipts and their expenditure is not revealed to voters to see.

The transparency commitments by the PN and PL go beyond the EU’s requirements, resulting from national media scrutiny. But while the PN has observed this commitment, Labour’s MEPs have largely ignored their transparency pledge.