Salvino Giusti has been engaged on a person-of-trust basis since early last year.

A 72-year-old adviser serving at the Maltese Consulate General in Sydney earns €87,681 a year not €28,000 every four weeks, as erroneously reported in a reply to a parliamentary question.

Salvino Giusti, who had been engaged on a person-of-trust basis on February 1, 2014, has an annual pay package of €87,681 composed of a salary (€28,420) and a post-adjustment allowance (€59,261) since he serves in Australia.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs yesterday corrected the figures presented in a paper tabled in Parliament on Monday in reply to a written question by Kristy Debono (PN).

Mr Giusti had joined the public service in 1960 and served at the Department of Health, the Tourism Board, the Department of Social Services and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Tourism.

In May 1970, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was posted at the Permanent Mission of Malta to the United Nations in New York. Four years later, he was appointed Malta’s Representative at the United Nations Development Programme.

Between 1983 and1987, Mr Giusti served as chargé d’affaires and consul-general at the Maltese Embassy in Tripoli, Libya and, in November 1988, he was decorated by the Libyan government for “distinguished diplomatic service in Libya”.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has nine consultants engaged on a position-of-trust basis, including four who were already giving such services before the 2013 election.