Although the Prime Minister’s partial backtrack on politician’s salaries has satisfied his backbench, former Labour leader Alfred Sant has promised not to back down on his claims the government is behaving in “contempt of Parliament”.
“I’m even more critical now. This is absolutely in contempt of Parliament. Which other government works in this way? This is a stop gap and now we are told we have by the end of next week to decide on the way forward,” the MP said irately when contacted.
Dr Sant believes parliamentarians have been ridiculed beyond belief and no refunds will make up for the damage done.
He said the Prime Minister should at the very least have made a sincere apology in Parliament but instead Lawrence Gonzi gave a staunch defence of why ministers should retain their honorarium.
“This was just a manoeuvre to get his backbenchers off his back,” Dr Sant said.
He did not go into the merits of whether MPs deserved a raise or whether ministers should receive their honorarium as MPs, an issue he said Labour leader Joseph Muscat was tackling “brilliantly”. His qualm was the way the government was treating Parliament, an institution that should be regarded as higher than the Cabinet, which he described as almost a “sub-committee” of the House of Representatives.
“The Parliament is being treated like a kindergarten,” he said, adding he was expecting a reply this week to the letter of complaint he sent last month to Speaker Michael Frendo. Dr Sant said letting the House Business Committee decide how much to raise MP’s salaries was no solution. Parliament should have “a whole new mechanism” to establish these issues, such as that used by the House of Commons.
“There has to be transparency... The problem that has arisen has to have a parliamentary solution if the government does not want to be in contempt of Parliament,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nationalist MP Jean-Pierre Farrugia, who threatened to vote against his government if the issue went to Parliament, prompting Dr Gonzi’s change of heart, said he was “satisfied” by the way the matter was resolved.
“I noticed the resistance was not coming from (Dr Gonzi). If it depended on him, this matter would have been solved much earlier. Yesterday, I realised he was all for no rises. In fact, he was really sensitive about this issue and I was not aware how sensitive he was.”
Dr Farrugia said last week Dr Sant was “bang on” when he said the government had behaved in contempt of Parliament by allowing ministers to receive an increase on their honorarium before other MPs. But he feels this issue has now been resolved because that increase would be refunded.
He pointed out that, besides the refunds, the government had also stopped the backdated pay rise of MPs, meaning taxpayers made savings of more than €1.3 million (€19,500 by 69 MPs).
“It’s no joke,” he said proudly, pointing out the money can now go to better use.
Dr Farrugia said it was “wise” to discuss the rises within a parliamentary committee but he still felt any increases were ill-timed and he would still donate an additional pay to causes close to his heart, as promised.
He also agreed with Dr Gonzi that ideally such decisions should eventually be decided by a non-parliamentary body.
Dr Farrugia, who in recent weeks had gone as far as to question the leadership of Dr Gonzi, praised him for having “the guts” to admit his mistakes. He said it was fair for ministers to refund the extra money they were given “by mistake”, the same way any citizen could be made to do if s/he received unwarranted payments.
“In this issue the Prime Minister has shown a lot of leadership skills.”
He stressed no one in his parliamentary group ever disagreed with ministers receiving an honorarium. The problem was their honorarium was already higher.
The Labour Party yesterday refused to expand on its stand regarding the rises that will be discussed in the House Business Committee.
The Times asked whether Labour MPs would hand over any increases to the charity fund set up by the party or whether a more transparent process would be acceptable to them.
A party spokesman simply said leader Joseph Muscat was committed to donating his honorarium, when it was received, and that the PL’s position would be made known in the Committee.
The party said in a statement ministers were still enjoying a rise of some 70 per cent and the Prime Minister should therefore expect no gratitude from workers who saw their salaries go up by only €1.16 per week while battling higher utility costs.
On the other hand, the Nationalist Party said there was strong disagreement within the Labour parliamentary group, contrary to what Dr Muscat tried to say. All they agreed upon, the PN said, was to donate as much money as they wanted to the party’s charity fund, not the whole increase.