Labour leader Joseph Muscat this morning indicated that a future Labour government would stop the situation where ministers received two incomes – as MPs and their ministerial salary.

Speaking in a radio interview, Dr Muscat said he did not think it was constitutionally logical that the prime minister, ministers parliamentary secretaries and the leader of the opposition received a ministerial pay as well as the pay of MPs, since they could not be appointed to their office unless they were MPs.

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said in reply to a parliamentary question last week that following a Cabinet decision in May 2008, ministers and parliamentary secretaries were being given their honoraria as MPs along with their ministerial salaries. The same applied for the leader of the opposition.

He also revealed that the honoraria for all MPs has been raised, although the backdated payments still have to start in their case.

Speaking in a radio interview, Dr Muscat said the government’s decision was taken at the same time as the prime minister had been warning the country of financial and economic storms on the horizon, and as the government reneged on its promise to significantly reduce income tax.

Dr Muscat said he only learnt from the parliamentary question that he too was to start receiving the honorarium along with his pay as leader of the opposition. However he was turning it down because ‘he was not for sale’.

Dr Muscat said he was still looking into whether he could refuse the raise or rather direct the money to a special fund to benefit charities.

What was certain, however, was that he would not touch it, because he would otherwise not be able to look straight in the eyes of people who could not make ends meet as the government continued to make their financial burden heavier, not least through the increases in the price of water, electricity and gas.

The issue of MPs’ salaries, he said, was different in that it did not involve a double pay, but here too, there was the issue of lack of transparency.

He was leaving it up to MPs to decide whether they would accept it, on the basis of their personal situation.

The Opposition, he said, was open to talks on the adequacy of MPs’ and ministers’ pay, but could not accept a situation where decisions were taken in secret.

REVIEW OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE

When replying to other questions, Dr Muscat also promised that a future Labour governemnt would review the way the Public Accounts Committee operated, and restore its dignity.

He said one could not continue to have a situation where a minister whose decisions were under investigations ended up asking the questions, instead of answering them.

Dr Muscat said Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt was trying to confuse the people and was playing ‘a dangerous game’ in order to defend himself over the BWSC contract, but he was confident that more information would emerge on this issue.

QAWRA LAND QUESTIONS

Dr Muscat said that after the Christmas recess, the Opposition would ask questions in Parliament on the prime site in Qawra which the government had transferred to Go as part of the privatisation of Maltacom. He noted that while a government minister had claimed that talks for the return of the land to the government were nearing conclusion, the GO CEO, replying to a journalist’s question, had said that there were no talks on the matter between the government and the company.

Dr Muscat said he did not think the CEO had reasons not to tell the truth.