NEWS | Wednesday, 26 November 2008

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As people worry over energy bills, ex-ministers get €157,000 ‘to find a job’

Julia Farrugia
With consumers and businesses alike reeling from the massive hike in utility bills, eight former ministers and former Opposition leader Alfred Sant will be receiving €157,000 from the Prime Minister in the form of a ‘terminal benefit’.
Revealed last Sunday by sister newspaper Illum, Sant and the former PN ministers – Louis Deguara, Ninu Zammit, Censu Galea, Francis Zammit Dimech, Jesmond Mugliett, Edwin Vassallo, Michael Frendo, and Tony Abela – have been compensated under Lawrence Gonzi’s plan, announced back in April, to help former ministers find their feet as they rejoin the labour market.
But to add insult to injury, MaltaToday can confirm that most of these MPs were back to work just months, if not weeks after the March election, some of them in their very own firms where a job was waiting for them.
Altogether, these eight MPs and one former MP will each get the equivalent of a yearly working man’s salary – more than enough to pay electricity and water bills for years to come.
The Gonzi compensation was announced to help former ministers get back into private employment after spending years in the service of the country.
But as Members of Parliament, today these former officials are already enjoying their annual €16,305 honoraria. Only Tony Abela, the notary from Rabat, failed to make it to the House this time around.
And Mugliett, Deguara, Abela and Vassallo already had a private practice or a business to return to, after being ditched from the Cabinet by Gonzi himself.
Contacted by MaltaToday, former minister Michael Frendo who was awarded €10,823, confirmed that he was already working. A lawyer by profession, Frendo said he only took that part of the compensation for his service as minister, and not “the money to be able to go back to work” – reportedly amounting to over €8,000.
Frendo stated it was “not easy to integrate back into work” and he also declared he is no longer a partner at the law firm Gatt Frendo Tufigno, which has since March changed its name to GTG Advocates.
He refused to give any more details on his current employment.
The former minister of roads Jesmond Mugliett, who was awarded €18,504, is today back to work as an architect alongside Robert Sant, with whom he is listed as a co-shareholder in Sant & Mugliett Company Ltd (according to company registry records at the time of publishing).
He sent a message through his colleague that he was “busy working and that he will get back”, but he never returned MaltaToday’s call.
Another €18,505 was forked out to former communications minister Censu Galea, himself also an architect. Galea said he took up his first jobs back in August.
“If I remember correctly I took my first assignment in August and I took the government compensation a few weeks ago,” Galea said.
He added that it was “not at all easy to get back to the working environment”, although he must be somewhat comforted by his compensation, which amounts to some €6,000 every month since losing his Cabinet post.
Former health minister Louis Deguara was seen back at work as a GP in Naxxar soon after the March election, although as a doctor he was exempted from the code that forbids ministers taking up private employment. He was awarded €18,565 for his service but refused to answer questions related to the matter, saying he could not talk because he was occupied in “someone’s house”. Subsequent phone calls were unanswered.
A more aggressive response came from the former parliamentary secretary Anthony Abela, the notary who was filmed by One News’ cameras arriving at his Rabat office to attend an appointment set up by the news team itself. He was lambasted in parliament by former Labour leader Alfred Sant for being a “part-time parliamentary secretary” and a “full-time notary at the OPM”, when persons in a political office must refrain from their private practice.
Abela was given €14,014, according to him “specifically for not being elected in Parliament… to be honest with you I have to rebuild my clients’ database. When I moved, my clients moved to different notaries,” he insisted.
He took umbrage at MaltaToday, saying he was no longer a public figure. “I am fed up. I am a tired man. Since the Illum article I have received a barrage of comments,” claiming that people were taking the Mickey out of him (‘qed jitnejku bija’).
Another €18,504 were given to former tourism minister Francis Zammit Dimech.
Attempts to reach both Zammit Dimech, former resources minster Ninu Zammit and the former parliamentary secretary Edwin Vassallo proved futile.
Zammit, an architect, took a terminal benefit amounting to €18,542, whilst Vassallo, who owns a shop in Mosta, received a compensation of €17,614.
Alfred Sant, who received the highest compensation of €21,723 after 16 years as Leader of the Opposition, said he was informed about this compensation by a letter received from the Office of the Prime Minister in late July.
“They claimed that I had received the funds. I checked to see what was happening. It turned out that the money was initially held by the Parliament,” Sant said.
Asked whether this compensation was appropriate for handsomely paid ministers, Sant, an economist and management consultant, insisted that: “it is definitely harder for Labourites to integrate back to work.”

jfarrugia@mediatoday.com.mt

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