Sai Mizzi Liang, the Energy Minister’s wife, is receiving around €160,000 a year in her role as Malta Enterprise’s envoy to China.
These estimates were calculated after the government published her contract last Monday, almost a year after it was signed and after repeated requests by media and the Opposition.
This newspaper is also informed that this is the first time Malta Enterprise, the island’s investment promotion agency, is paying one of its employees a financial package equivalent to that of an ambassador.
Sources close to Malta Enterprise said until Ms Mizzi Liang’s direct appointment last year, the agency’s employees working in overseas missions “were not even paid half as much as what Sai Mizzi Liang is earning”.
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What Sai Mizzi Liang’s contract costs taxpayers
| Taxable salary | €33,853 |
| Non-taxable salary | €39,769 |
| Settling-in allowance | €2,833 |
| Representation allowance | €3,261 |
| Outfit allowance payment | €310 |
| Child allowance | €2,908 |
| Education allowance | €18,783* |
| Medical care | €500* |
| Dental care | €200* |
| Rental of fixed telephone service and payment of 20% of calls | €500* |
| Fully expensed mobile phone | €1,000* |
| Flights reimbursements (business class) | €10,000* |
| Fully paid residence | €36,000* |
| Fully paid official car and fuel | €10,000* |
| TOTAL per annum | €159,917 |
| TOTAL over three years | €479,751 |
| TOTAL per month | €13,326 |
*Based on very conservative estimates compared to other ambassadors’ perks.