Reference is made to The Sunday Times of Malta story ‘Muscats see the world without breaking the bank’ (May 5).
The Prime Minister’s income is all listed in his declaration of assets and he holds no other income than what is publicly declared. The choice of schooling of the children is the family’s prerogative and falls within the family’s budget.
The journalist mixes trips on official duties with the Prime Minister’s family holidays. Had the journalist done his research properly, he would have found open source information such as Parliamentary Questions to avoid him making false assumptions and claims.
The Prime Minister’s Office follows government guidelines and long-standing procedures adopted for travelling undertaken by the Prime Minister on official trips. The family pays for the daughters when they accompany their parents.
Holidays are always paid by the family. The details of the family trip in 2017 which the journalist refers to were all made public by the Prime Minister himself.
It is shameful that the newspaper keeps using the same deceptive tactics before fact-checking, while trying to intermingle official duties with purely family matters. Facts have always belied such tactics.
Editorial note:
The declarations of assets referred to in the Office of the Prime Minister’s right of reply have not been made public since 2016. It is in this declaration that the Prime Minister and his ministers are obliged to declare their income.
The Sunday Times of Malta story was based on the annual filings MPs have to make to Parliament as well as publicly available information about the Prime Minister’s pay. MPs list their financial interests, and not their income, in such declarations.
The point of the story was to highlight the fact that while the Muscat family took several holidays abroad in 2018, the Prime Minister’s bank balance has been unchanged since 2014, raising the question of how these trips and other expenditure were funded. This question has not so far been answered.
The story mentioned five trips. It was clearly stated that the two trips to Italy and the trip to Greece were family holidays. Costs for the official Australia trip were calculated on the assumption that the Muscat family paid for their daughters to join, as confirmed in the right of reply.
The costs for the Chicago trip were calculated on the assumption that the Prime Minister and his two daughters joined his wife, who was carrying out charity work in the US. The Sunday Times of Malta’s report was based on trips made in 2018.