When he was still Honourable, that is when he was a member of the House of Representatives and able to ask questions of ministers, dentist Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando had posed a series of questions about me to assorted ministers on his side of the House.

I thought I should remind you that he was a PN MP, given that with the passage of time, one's recollection of who was what and who owed loyalty to whom, for instance, tend to blur. I mean, we're witnessing a renaissance of thought about the CheeseGrater where our current honourable members sit, which is slowly transmogrifying into a monumental masterpiece to Labour positivity, Premier Muscat's whines and whinges about it fading away.

The motive behind Pullicino Orlando's curiosity about me was clear to me at the time, and remains clear, though he could have saved himself the trouble, because Labour MPs had been asking the same things for years. This was the first time a PN MP had put the same question, but it was not surprising, because the way the wind was blowing was eminently clear.

We've now found out, by dint of a PQ about the dear fellow himself, what it is he's being paid to play the part of executive chairman of the Malta Council for Science Technology, not to be confused with the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology, which is headed by another bloke whose remunerative package we were also informed about at the same time as we got to know about Pullicino Orlando's princely compensation for services rendered.

I've no beef, incidentally, about what the principal of the MCAST gets: he runs a multi-centre tertiary education establishment with hundreds of staff and thousands of students. I imagine he's somewhat miffed to have been popped into the same basket as the dentist chappie, but such is life, I suppose.

Apparently, Pullicino Orlando earns a salary and gets a performance bonus (though what it is that he performs is lost on me) and he also gets a "market correctivity allowance". He also gets a number of other perks, such as fuel, a driver and communications for free, which are all pretty much standard.

If I were an honourable, I'd put a number of supplementaries to the mnister.

Firstly, does dentist Pullicino Orlando work full-time to be in a position to receive what is a pretty decent full-time salary? Way more than minimum wage, so I suppose we can be thankful for the small mercy that he won't be claiming overtime on it, if he works more than normal working hours. What I'm wondering, though, is whether he works up normal working hours, given that he's a practicing dentist.

Secondly, who assesses the extent to which Pullicino Orlando has performed sufficiently well to allow him to be given his performance bonus? I'm assuming that it's current performance we should be looking at, not past performances, though in the circumstances, I'm sure one could be forgiven for wondering.

Thirdly, what's this "market correctivity" malarkey? That sort of payment is usually made to high-flyers who would find higher paid work in the private sector: Pullicino Orlando is hardly qualified to fit into that range, now is he? It's not as if his special talents are sought here, there and everywhere, making it imperative on the government to pay him over the odds in order to secure his incomparable skills and talents.

Incidentally, for all I know, Pullicino Orlando was already in receipt of this tidy little parcel of euro at the point when the government changed and he was retained in post. What was ridiculous under a PN government remains ridiculous under a Labour government, even if the reasons why the dear fellow was appointed or retained are, in effect, the mirror image of each other, if you catch my drift.

It's not up to us, mere citizens of this Republic, to dare question the wheelings and dealings of the High & Mighty when they distribute their tax-takings (taxes levied on us, of course) to assorted functionaries and beneficiaries of the government's largesse. Minister's wives, seekers of rehearsal spaces, loudmouths with laryngitis or formerly loud-mouthed switchers, all of these and more have found nourishment at the State's udder, and long may they suckle, meritorious as they are of the milk and honey they ingest to the point of bursting.

Because, like Pullicino Orlando, they're worth it.

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