Beppe Fenech Adami addressing the media in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in Valletta. Photo: Jason Borg

Malta’s biggest Cabinet is costing taxpayers an additional €8.5 million a year when compared with the previous administration, Nationalist deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami has said.

Addressing a news conference outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Valletta, Dr Fenech Adami said the annual bill for 15 ministers and eight parliamentary secretaries was €20.1 million.

This is in stark contrast to the last PN Cabinet, made up of 12 ministers and two parliamentary secretaries, which cost €11.6 million. Over an entire legislature, the present Cabinet would cost €42 million more, he said.

The extra funds would equate to the cost of employing either 444 teachers or 532 nurses.

The PN deputy leader remarked that these contradicted Labour’s pledge to use taxpayers’ money diligently and give citizens good value for money. He added that expenses were further augmented by the fact that each ministry had large secretariats on the State payroll, most of whom had been engaged from outside the civil service.

The extra funds would equate to employing another 444 teachers or 532 nurses

PN spokesperson for foreign and EU affairs Marthese Portelli said the estimated costs were rather conservative.

Dr Portelli said the salary scales were based on those published in the financial estimates and the guidelines issued by the Prime Minister’s Office on the remuneration package of government consultants.

Asked whether the controversial increase of €500 per week to the former PN Cabinet was included in these workings, Dr Fenech Adami said this had been refunded and so was not taken into account.

The PN yesterday also hit out against the appointment of Labour MEP candidate Lino Bianco as designate ambassador for Romania and that of Labour MP Silvio Schembri as chairman for the Responsible Gaming Foundation.

It noted that Mr Schembri and his wife had been given eight different government posts, in sharp contrast to the reality faced by some 8,000 people who are currently on the unemployment register.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party said the last PN Cabinet had awarded a weekly increase of €500 to itself, given more than €1 million in consultancies to those in its inner circles and left Enemalta bankrupt.