Joe Debono Grech

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is still shying away from taking any action against one of his MPs who has failed to declare some of his income in his annual tax declarations.

Despite his part-time job as consultant to Gozo Minister Anton Refalo, veteran Labour MP Joe Debono Grech failed to declare any of his income according to his own tax declarations seen by this newspaper.

However, despite this omission, the Prime Minister does not want to state what action he will be taking against his MP.

Asked whether Dr Muscat has asked for clarifications from his MP and whether any action will be taken against him, the Prime Minister’s spokesman refused to reply.

Soon after Labour’s return to power in 2013, the former Agriculture Minister, who has been elected to Parliament since 1976, was not given a Ministerial portfolio.

Instead, the 77-year old MP was appointed as a consultant on Gozo Channel and rural affairs for the Gozo Ministry.

Although according to a Ministry spokesman, in 2014, Mr Debono Grech was being remunerated under €12,000 a year for his 20-hour a week consultancy job, Mr Debono Grech did not declare any of this income in his tax return.

Instead, he declared an income of €51,200 for that year, derived from his honoraria in Parliament and two different pensions.

According to his latest consultancy contract, in 2015 Mr Debono Grech was not given any financial remuneration for his presence in the Ministry but as compensation he was given a fully-expensed car and driver for 20 hours a week.

Still, despite that payments in kind are also taxable according to the law, Mr Debono Grech has once again failed to declare this income in his tax return.

According to his tax declaration for 2015, the Labour MP declared a total income of €56,868, derived from his parliamentary honoraria and pensions.

Asked whether it is acceptable for the Prime Minister that one of his MPs is not declaring all his income for tax purposes, Dr Muscat failed to reply.

Ironically, a fellow MP who used to be elected on the same district as Mr Debono Grech had immediately resigned his seat as soon as he was caught under declaringhis income.

In 1994, Nationalist MP Lino Gauci Borda, a doctor by profession, resigned from Parliament as soon as a newspaper revealed that he had not declared a UK bank account.

At the time, Dr Gauci Borda was a backbencher in the government’s parliamentary group led by Prime Minister Fenech Adami.