Democratic Party MP Godfrey Farrugia asked the Prime Minister to state which MPs are currently employed directly with the government. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is still not in a position to provide details to Parliament on the number of MPs from both sides of the House directly or indirectly employed by the government.

In parliamentary questions more than two months ago by Democratic Party MP Godfrey Farrugia, Dr Muscat was asked to say which MPs are employed directly with the government through government departments, ministerial private secretariats or government agencies.

Dr Farrugia also asked when and how these MPs were recruited, what was their remuneration and conditions of work and what role they occupied with the government. He further asked which sitting MPs provided consultancy services to the government or any of its entities.

Despite the questions being presented twice in two months, the Prime Minister has told Parliament that he is still not in a position to reply, as the information was still being compiled.

The issue of Members of Parliament given direct employment with the government was raised recently when Times of Malta reported that the position of Labour MP Glenn Bedingfield as a person of trust of the Prime Minister’s private secretariat might be in breach of the Constitution.

Article 55(1)(c) lays down that the seat of an MP may become vacant if the Member of Parliament is engaged on a contract of works with the government, unless exempted by Parliament.

According to Mr Bedingfield’s contract, he was engaged on June 3, the day of the general election.

Glenn Bedingfield was engaged on June 3, general election day

He became a MP later that month through a casual election to fill the seat vacated by Dr Muscat on the second district. Until the end of 2017, Mr Bedingfield retained his job with the Prime Minister despite being an elected member of the House.

Although they did not offer a definite reply, both the Dean of the Faculty of Laws at the University of Malta, Kevin Aquilina, and former European Court of Human Rights judge Giovanni Bonello could not exclude that Mr Bedingfield’s parliamentary seat could be “challenged”.

Since the beginning of this year, Mr Bedingfield has been put on another government salary to coordinate what is being called “a strategy for Cottonera”.

No details have been given on his remuneration package and his job description.

While insisting that he was not in breach of the Constitution, Mr Bedingfield replied in Parliament that there were many other MPs who held a government job or government contract. These parliamentarians included Labour Members Alex Muscat, Rosianne Cutajar, Edward Zammit Lewis, Robert Abela and Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi and Nationalist Members David Agius, Toni Bezzina, Robert Cutajar, Kristy Debono, Mario Galea, Clyde Puli and Herman Schiavone.