Commissioner for Laws Franco Debono has been granted the facility of a driver and a Volkswagen Passat, which ironically once belonged to then parliamentary secretary Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, Times of Malta has learnt.
As a fellow Nationalist MP, Dr Debono was instrumental in forcing Dr Mifsud Bonnici to resign as Home Affairs Minister last year when he voted in favour of an Opposition no-confidence motion against him in Parliament.
Justice Ministry Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici confirmed that Dr Debono has been granted a driver and car for his role as commissioner.
Dr Bonnici said the perk was standard for commissioners and Commissioner for Children Helen D’Amato had the same facility.
Dr Debono is receiving €24,000 a year and has been exempted from giving up his private practice as a criminal lawyer.
This is 60 per cent of the remuneration granted to other commissioners, who receive €30,600. Dr Debono has the additional responsibility of coordinating the convention to review the Constitution.
His remuneration consists of €18,401 a year, plus some €6,000 in allowances including a €1,681 expense allowance and a performance allowance of €4,600. Dr Debono’s term will last one year and will be reviewed annually.
Replying to questions from this newspaper, Dr Bonnici said it was incorrect to state that Dr Debono’s role was part-time, despite being granted permission to carry on with his private practice.
“The claim that Dr Debono’s post is part-time is not correct. Dr Debono is obliged to fulfil the duties of Commissioner of Laws to the full but was granted the possibility (albeit with a 40 per cent drop in his salary) to keep on working in private practice at the same time,” Dr Bonnici said.
He also defended the decision to grant him a car and driver.
“Other commissioners have the facility of use of car and driver and Dr Debono, as a commissioner, has been likewise given the facility of a car and a driver. Dr Debono could have opted for an additional allowance in lieu of use of a car and driver,” Dr Bonnici said.
He added that the driver was paid according to normal public service rules and that the car assigned to Dr Debono’s driver was a Government-owned VW Passat once used by Dr Mifsud Bonnici when he was still a parliamentary secretary.
Dr Debono, a former Nationalist MP who brought down his own government in December when he voted with Labour on the Budget, was one of the first people appointed by the new administration. In the final year of the last legislature, he had voted in favour of an Opposition motion of no-confidence in Dr Mifsud Bonnici, which led to his resignation as minister.
Dr Debono had repeatedly criticised every aspect of Dr Mifsud Bonnici’s management of the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry, insisting he should pay the price for his failure to bring about various reforms.
His appointment did not go down well with the Nationalist Party, which described it as “divisive” and “insulting to the Opposition”.
Instead, the PN said, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had, “on purpose”, opted to take “a divisive decision which was intended to insult the Opposition for political gain”.