Former Labour Prime Minister Alfred Sant has accused the government of contempt of the House in the manner how it decided to raise the honoraria of MPs and how the information was disclosed, two-and-a-half-years later, in a way which put MPs in a bad light.

In a letter to Speaker Michael Frendo, Dr Sant said the government immediately gave the raise to its ministers but was still in the process of implimenting its decision for other MPs.

He noted that according to a reply to a parliamentary question, the minister of finance had said that the honoraria of MPs has been raised from 50 to 70 per cent of pay scale 1 of the civil service.

The increase was backdated to March 2008. The decision was taken by the Cabinet in May 2008.

It was also decided at the time that the Prime Minister, Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, the Speaker and the Leader of the Opposition would no longer lose the honoraria of MPs when they assumed their offices.

Other Parliaments, Dr Sant said, had transparent processes, some established by parliamentary resolutions, on how payments to MPs should be calculated.

It was true that Malta never had such a mechanism but Parliament should never have been treated in this way.

Dr Sant asked the Speaker to consider whether the government had been in contempt when it:

• Did not announce the raise for more than two-and-a-half -years and only started to implement it in the case of ministers and parliamentary secretaries;
• Announced the raise in an underhand manner in reply to a parliamentary question;
• Published the information at a time when the people were feeling the austerity burdens in taxes, payments and job restructuring, putting all MPs in a bad light with the people.

These, Dr Sant said, were all factors which ridiculed MPs in the eyes of the people , undermining their constitutional role.

In such circumstances, it was clear that MPs were placed in a difficult situation with the people they represented.

Dr Sant said that there were clear precedents in other Parliaments, such as in Canada, New South Wales and India, where this problem had been brought up and the government was found guilty of contempt.

He said that for the issue to be clear, the government should hand Parliament an authentic copy of the Cabinet decision taken on May 5, 2008.

He said that it was important to strengthen Parliament’s powers so that it could be better able to carry out its Constitutional duties of legislating and scrutinising the executive.

Dr Sant said he expected from Mr Speaker a full and clear reply in the interest of parliamentary democracy.