Updated 11.30am with PN reaction
Air Malta chairman and CEO David Curmi receives a director’s fee of €10,000 every year apart from a monthly €21,500 salary, the Finance Minister clarified on Thursday.
Clyde Caruana made the admission in a letter to the Speaker of the House, the Standards Commissioner for Public Life and the media.
In his letter, Caruana said Curmi also received a director's fee of €10,000 every year. The minister said Curmi himself informed him of this.
News of Curmi's lucrative contract with the struggling national airline sparked PN calls for a parliamentary investigation into Caruana for having "lied to parliament", as the minister had replied to a parliamentary question by saying Curmi received no payment as an Air Malta board member.
The minister initially insisted he had not misled MPs, as the PQ concerned payments to board members and Curmi was paid as a CEO, not as a board member.
But the minister said on Thursday that it appears Curmi does in fact receive payment for sitting on Air Malta's board, too.
He said the information he originally provided parliament was based on information provided to him by the airline.
"I apologise for this. It was never my intention to mislead parliament or provide it with incorrect information," Caruana wrote.
Curmi was engaged to lead Air Malta in January 2021.
One year into his three-year term, the government announced a massive restructuring effort in what Caruana dubbed a “last chance” for the airline to stave off bankruptcy.
As part of that restructuring effort, the airline slashed its workforce by half, hived off baggage and ground handling services and dropped many of its unprofitable routes.
PN: Finance Minister caught lying twice
In a statement on Friday the PN said the Finance Minister had been caught lying twice.
The party said Caruana first claimed the Air Malta chair was not being paid, and then said he was actually being paid, but not for his chairmanship post.
Now that he has been caught out once again, the Finance Minister admitted that Curmi was earning an "extra allowance" as chair of the Air Malta Board, the PN said.
"A government based on lies: Malta tagħna lkoll and L-aqwa żmien. They have too much to hide. Our country deserves better. You deserve better," the statement read.