Record number of ministers pushes Cabinet cost towards €19 million

Malta’s new cabinet is set to cost almost €19 million this year, after Robert Abela appointed a record number of ministers earlier this week.

On Wednesday, Abela unveiled a cabinet composed of 21 ministers and two parliamentary secretaries.

The new cabinet features six more ministers than the 18 appointed by Abela in a January 2024 reshuffle, but far fewer parliamentary secretaries.

The 2024 cabinet had been estimated to cost taxpayers some €15.9 million per year, according to an exercise carried out by Times of Malta at the time.

A similar exercise suggests the cost of the new cabinet is set to be significantly higher, reaching almost €19 million.

This includes the salaries and allowances paid to cabinet members themselves and their secretariat staff.

Public sector manuals set out how many staff members, often referred to as persons of trust, each cabinet member can appoint to their secretariat, as well as their respective salaries and perks.

The prime minister’s secretariat is, unsurprisingly, the largest, with a maximum of 37 staff members. Meanwhile, ministers can appoint up to 19 people to their teams, with the number going down to 11 for parliamentary secretaries.

Prime Minister’s secretariat to cost €1.5 million

The staff salaries indicated in the manuals suggest that the prime minister’s secretariat alone will likely cost roughly €1.5 million in 2026.

Meanwhile, each of the 21 ministries’ secretariats will amount to between €730,000 and €780,000, depending on whether staff members are paid at the higher or lower end of their salary scales.

Each parliamentary secretary’s team will cost somewhere between €360,000 and €450,000.

In total, this indicates that the cost of the cabinet could range between €17.5 million and €18.9 million this year.

This figure is set to increase over the legislature as public sector salaries increase from one year to the next. Salaries of secretariat officials, as well as those of their ministerial bosses, are pegged to public sector salary scales.

The €18.9 million figure does include the pay for the various policy consultants that ministries can engage. As with secretariat staff numbers, consultants and their salaries are governed by public service rules.

The prime minister can engage up to eight policy consultants, while ministries get four and parliamentary secretaries two each.

Consultants’ pay is also pegged to public sector salaries. However, they typically work irregular hours, making it difficult to estimate their cost. Consultants’ pay is pegged to scale 3 (€45,904) for public service workers, with consultants paid pro rata in line with their working hours.

If all cabinet members filled their policy consultant slots, with all consultants working a full week, the bill to taxpayers would swell by a further €650,000.

This would increase even further if all consultants were awarded an optional €20,000 expertise allowance and €2,000 expense allowance.

These allowances are intended to be awarded in exceptional cases; however, history suggests that oversight is fairly lax.

Amanda Muscat, the partner of then-minister Clayton Bartolo, was awarded both allowances during her brief 13-month stint as a consultant, bringing her total income up to €70,000.

From 15 to 27-strong cabinets in the space of a decade

The size of government cabinets in Malta has grown over the years, rising from just over a dozen members in the Gonzi years to almost 30 during recent legislatures.

In 2008, newly elected Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi appointed eight ministers and six parliamentary secretaries, for a lean cabinet of just 15 people, including himself.

The move proved ill-judged, with widespread discontent among government backbenches causing no shortage of headaches to his government throughout the legislature.

Joseph Muscat took the opposite approach upon election in 2013, appointing 14 ministers and eight parliamentary secretaries, for a 23-person cabinet.

Numbers have remained high ever since, peaking at 27 in a 2024 reshuffle in which Robert Abela appointed 18 ministers and eight parliamentary secretaries.

The total number has now shrunk slightly to 24, including the prime minister, following Wednesday’s announcements.

However, the new cabinet features more ministers (and fewer parliamentary secretaries) than ever, bringing its overall cost up.

How does Malta’s cabinet compare to others?

Malta’s 24-strong cabinet is significantly larger than those of most European countries, including minnows of a similar size.

In Luxembourg, Prime Minister Luc Frieden presides over a cabinet of just 14 people, while that in Andorra is even smaller, at just 13, including Prime Minister Xavier Espot Zamora.

Iceland has one of the smallest cabinets in Europe, with just 10 ministers under the watch of Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir.

On the other hand, Malta’s Mediterranean neighbour Cyprus has adopted a similar approach, appointing 19 ministers and deputy ministers to the cabinet, aside from President Nikos Christodoulides.

More broadly, Malta remains among the countries with the largest government cabinets in Europe.

While Malta’s cabinet pales in comparison to the 36 ministers and delegate ministers (similar to parliamentary secretaries) appointed by the French government, it remains larger than that of most EU countries, where cabinets are typically composed of under 20 members.

However, several other countries, including Denmark, Italy and Sweden, feature government cabinets of a similar size to Malta’s.