Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s Cabinet is not only the largest in Malta’s history but also the most expensive, according to an analysis carried out by The Times.

Dr Muscat’s Cabinet will cost around €32 million more for the five-year legislature than the one appointed by Lawrence Gonzi in 2008.

With a team of 23, comprising the Prime Minister, 14 ministers and eight parliamentary secretaries, the costs of running the administration will rise from €9 to €15.4 million a year, an increase of more than €6 million a year.

This increase will be much higher than the controversial €500 weekly pay rise given to ministers in 2008 and which would have cost public coffers €338,000 a year. Following public outcry and harsh criticism by the Labour Party, the rise was reversed and Nationalist ministers had to pay back in full the increase they received.

The number of members in Cabinet also exceeds the one appointed by Alfred Sant in 1998.

Dr Muscat had said during the electoral campaign that his Cabinet would not be costlier than those of the Fenech Adami administrations.

Dr Fenech Adami’s largest and costliest Cabinet was the one appointed in 2003, with a total of 20 members.

Dr Muscat’s Cabinet would cost an additional €10 million on Dr Fenech Adami’s largest administration.

According to the latest estimates, the cost of each ministry is currently about €800,000 a year, while the running of an office of a parliamentary secretary is €400,000 a year.

These figures are deemed to be on the conservative side as they only include the salaries of ministers and their private secretariats without other running costs including transport, lease of buildings and equipment, travel and accommodation.

With a private secretariat of 38 staff members, the Prime Minister’s office is by far the biggest political expense running into €1 million a year.

According to rules established by the past administrations, each ministry may employ a complement of 20 staff while a parliamentary secretary is entitled to have 11 staff members in his private secretariat.

This means that the current Labour administration will need an army of 406 employees to run the show.