The two main political parties yesterday agreed an external body could be set up to discuss politicians’ salaries with Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg asking for talks to be restricted to MPs’ wages.
After weeks of controversy over pay raises to MPs and Cabinet members, the House Business Committee met last night to discuss a way forward on how politicians should be paid.
After an hour-long discussion, Speaker Michael Frendo adjourned the meeting for both parties to “chew” on the proposals so the remit of the proposed external body could be discussed further next time.
The meeting began with Labour deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia reading out proposals agreed upon by his parliamentary group.
The Labour group agreed the time was not ripe for any increases to MPs and, while Cabinet members deserved adequate remuneration, they should not receive a parliamentary honorarium. Therefore, the opposition proposed setting up a “permanent commission” that would decide on all salaries, including those of the President, the Prime Minister, the Opposition Leader, ministers and parliamentary secretaries. The commission would be made up of the Ombudsman, the Auditor General and the Electoral Commissioner.
The Labour Party said any changes to salaries, which should be relative to those in the public sector, would then be made public and adopted in the next legislature.
Dr Farrugia said the government’s proposal to replace free Air Malta tickets with a parliamentary allowance should be retained so as not to burden the troubled airline. But MPs should be given a choice whether to receive free telephone use and envelopes or get allowances instead, a point the government did not object to.
Dr Borg stood by the government’s position that ministers, like other MPs who served as civil servants, should receive their honorarium too. The government was open to discussing the actual amount, even through an external body, but this should reflect the extra duties they had been given over the years.
He said that if some form of committee were to be set up, a number of issues would have to be discussed, including, for instance, whether recommendations would be final or approved by Parliament or Cabinet.
Dr Borg insisted opposition Whip Joe Mizzi was aware ministers were receiving their honorarium, even citing a speech the Labour MP had made in Parliament complaining that performance of ministers had not improved despite being given a rise.
But Mr Mizzi categorically denied any knowledge of the change. Through his parliamentary experience he could tell there was something fishy, so the speech he made in Parliament was part of a strategy to extract information out of the ministers, he said.
Mr Mizzi stressed that the role of ministers was different to that of ordinary MPs and their job included attending Parliament for scrutiny.
If ministers were to be treated as ordinary MPs then all parliamentarians should have the right to set the agenda and get other privileges, he said.
Dr Borg argued ministers were sworn in twice, first as MPs and then as ministers, because the two jobs were distinct.
Labour said it would not budge from its position but Dr Frendo called on both parties to reflect on the separate proposals in the hope consensus could be achieved at the next meeting later this month.