Opposition leader Lawrence Gonzi this evening defended the severance package for Richard Cachia Caruana, saying people should be judged according to the results they achieved.
Earlier Foreign Minister George Vella said that the termination of the contract of Malta's former permanent representative to the EU had cost Malta €239,000 in terminal benefits, including payments for banked leave. Furthermore, in terms of his contract, Mr Cachia Caruana was being paid €5,900 per month for two years.
In his reaction, Dr Gonzi said that during his time in Brussels, Mr Cachia Caruana achieved very good results for Malta.
Only last January, Malta managed to obtain €1.28 billion, also thanks to Mr Cachia Caruana's work
Dr Gonzi said that judgement of a person should be based on results, and Mr Cachia Caruana's contract included global emoluments similar to that of ambassadors, and transition termination benefits as were given to members of ministerial secretariats.
EU REPORT
Dr Gonzi welcomed the European Union’s economic monitoring report on Malta, published this morning.
He said he could not end the Budget debate with a better certificate to the former government than the report’s observation that the Maltese economy was resilient and economic performance in 2013-14 was expected to accelerate and continue to outperform the EU average.
Dr Gonzi noted that when, in 2009, the euro area economy contracted by 4.4%, the decline of the Maltese economy was half as much. And when the recovery started, the rebound was more pronounced in Malta, ‘driven mainly by exports’.
This showed, Dr Gonzi said, how wrong it had been for Joseph Muscat to claim economic growth was coming only from the financial centre and i-gaming. The exports included the factories which the former government had saved and helped to grow.
He was especially pleased, Dr Gonzi said, that the EU had said that growth of the Maltese economy was expected to be ‘jobs rich’ with increased participation by women in the Labour force.
This was the best inheritance the new government could have.