The CEO of the Malta Residency and Visa Agency, Roderick Cutajar, will pocket €87,000 a year, according to information tabled in Parliament.
The agency, set up earlier this year, is responsible for the government’s residency-by-investment programme, run by Henley and Partners.
The ‘golden visa’ scheme offers fast-track permanent residence in Malta for individuals earning more than €100,000 who buy or rent property on the island and make an investment of €250,000 in government bonds.
Details of the CEO’s three-year contract were tabled by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on Monday in response to a parliamentary question by Opposition MP Karol Aquilina.
Mr Cutajar was appointed to the role when the agency was set up in April, as part of the split of Identity Malta into three separate entities.
The reform, which the government said was required due to the success of the citizenship and residency programmes, raised eyebrows as it came just five years after Identity Malta was set up, and after it emerged that there had been no public call for the heads of the new entities.