Quarter of MPs are employed with public sector

A quarter of Maltese members of parliament depend for their main income on employment with the government, information tabled in parliament shows

By: maltatoday.com

Dec 12 2024
24
2526 Views

Quarter of MPs are employed w

A quarter of Maltese members of parliament depend for their main income on employment with the government, information tabled in parliament shows.

Malta’s parliament has 79 MPs – making it the largest ever – of which 20 are employed with the public sector.

According to information tabled by Prime Minister Robert Abela, seven government MPs and 13 Opposition MPs are employed with the public administration. Collectively, they equate to 25% of MPs, who depend for their income on the government.

Abela was replying to a parliamentary question filed by Opposition MP Toni Bezzina, himself being one of the MPs employed with a government entity. Bezzina’s question was about government MPs who were employed with the public sector since April 2013. He sought information on their work arrangements, including remuneration and timesheets.

The Prime Minister limited his reply to the current crop of MPs, insisting that the request for information was too vast. But Abela took a dig at Bezzina, insisting the only thing that he had no problem in finding were Bezzina’s own timesheets “because they are inexistent”.

Bezzina has been at the centre of criticism by the government with Abela accusing him of not attending his place of work. Bezzina is employed with Infrastructure Malta.

In November 2020, then standards commissioner George Hyzler had ruled the system permitting MPs in public sector employment to attend parliamentary activities during working hours was being abused.

Hyzler had investigated the issue after a complaint was raised against Opposition MPs who were allegedly not turning up for their work within the public sector on a regular basis. The allegation is being reiterated today and a fresh investigation has been requested on the matter.

The rules governing the public sector state that members of parliament who work in the public sector are entitled to attend parliamentary activities that take place during office hours.

However, Hyzler had found that the system was being abused due to MPs absenting themselves from work without proper control, even to attend political and constituency activities. Hyzler said this practice was being tolerated by government entities and showed a “lack of good governance”.

He called for clearer rules that made it clear which activities could be attended by MPs during office hours, and that MPs should not be allowed to absent themselves from work to attend other types of activity.

But Hyzler also proposed that all backbench MPs should be given the choice of working full-time as MPs, and those who opt to become full-time MPs should be given a higher pay than those who opt to remain under current parliamentary arrangements as parttime MPs.

“If such a system is introduced, the law that permits MPs to continue to work as government employees should be repealed, save that these MPs should have the right to return to their jobs when their term in parliament ends,” Hyzler had concluded.