Standards Commissioner George Hyzler has been asked to investigate how the salary of parliamentary secretaries appears to have risen from €42,000 in 2013 to €60,000 last year.
The request was made by former Alternattiva Demokratika leader and independent MEP election candidate Arnold Cassola.
In enclosing some of the declarations of assets submitted by parliamentary secretaries, Prof Cassola asked the commissioner to investigate the raise; why it had not been announced by the government and how it was kept hidden from taxpayers.
He also asked what justification there was for the raise in view of the fact that ordinary citizens only got a raise of some €3 per week.
He also asked if action should be taken against whoever authorised the raise and kept it secret.
The issue erupted on Friday when Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi quoted a report uploaded by The Shift News which said that the income of Parliamentary Secretary Silvio Schembri had doubled between 2017 and 2018.
Dr Azzopardi highlighted the matter in the wake of the barrage of criticism which the Labour Party had levelled at the Nationalist government in 2008 when members of Cabinet had been given a €500 weekly increase. At the time, the Opposition MP was a parliamentary secretary. In this context, Dr Azzopardi described Labour’s decision to double the wage of parliamentary secretaries “by stealth” as shameful.
On Saturday, the government denied that there had been any raise and said that Mr Schembri’s income has only doubled due to the fact that he was promoted to Cabinet in the second half of 2017 following the general election. Therefore, Mr Schembri’s income for 2018 was double that for the previous year.
But Dr Azzopardi held his ground, saying that until March 2013, a parliamentary secretary’s wage was around €40,000, over and above the €20,000 honorarium received as an MP.
Dr Azzopardi also described the government’s reply that there had been no changes since 2013 as “quite vague”.
“Was it referring to March 2013, or the turn of the year when the PN was still in government? If the increase had been in place from day one of the Labour administration there would be no change,” he said.
Parliamentary Secretary Silvio Parnis declared an income of €60,000 from his position as parliamentary secretary last year. However, it is not clear if this amount comprised the MPs’ honorarium, which the former PN government had discontinued.
