PQs show some MPs making a killing from the State since quitting politics

A batch of parliamentary questions over the last month has shown how at least three former Labour MPs – Luciano Busuttil, Gavin Gulia Gulia and Silvio Grixti – have been very well-remunerated since quitting politics.

Former Labour Party MP Luciano Busuttil, for one, has been handsomely paid from the State coffers since throwing in the towel in 2018 and has been taken on by no less than eight different ministries since 2018.

Those ministries paid him a collective €350,614 for his consultancy services.

Busuttil, who was seldom out of the spotlight between 2008 and 2017 for one reason or another, had chosen to not contest the 2017 general election because, he said, he was tired of “being treated like a prostitute” for votes.

But, since then, the practising lawyer has made a killing from the public purse, according to a compilation of answers to Parliamentary Questions tabled by Opposition MP Mark Anthony Sammut over the last three weeks.

The data provided by various ministries show Busuttil was remunerated the most by the Education Ministry, which paid him €142,494 for his services.

That was followed by the Foreign Affairs Ministry (€85,332), where he was taken on by former minister Carmelo Abela as a person of trust six months after the June 2017 general election that he did not contest.

The Office of the Prime Minister also paid Busuttil €59,609 over the time frame. Busuttil had canvassed for Prime Minister Robert Abela during his Labour Party leadership campaign in 2020.

Later that year he was given a direct order by the OPM of close to €22,000 to provide legal services for the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development.

The overall sum also includes a direct order from the OPM of €30,000 for the provision of unspecified legal services.

Busuttil had also served as SportMalta chairman until he was replaced at the agency last year.

Other ministries requiring Busuttil’s expertise since 2018 included the Environment, Energy and Enterprise Ministry (€22,883), the Economy, EU Funds and Lands Ministry (€13,600), the Social Policy and Children’s Rights Ministry (€11,415), the Justice Ministry (€10,715) and the Home Affairs Ministry (€4,566).

The PQs also showed how former Labour MP Gavin Gulia earned €388,000 from the Tourism Ministry for his role as Malta Tourism Authority chairman.

Over and above that, Gulia has also earned €22,883 working for the Environment and Energy Ministry at a rate of €26.60 an hour.

Gulia had won a casual election in 2021 to fill the parliamentary seat vacated by now Central Bank of Malta governor Edward Scicluna.

He was sworn in but immediately resigned, explaining in a statement that Prime Minister Abela had asked him to instead stay on in his role as MTA chairman since it was a “crucial time” for the tourism sector given the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gulia was recently in the news over the MTA rental of an Msida villa from Gulia’s father-in-law, the yearly cost of which, since 2017, has been €50,000 per year according to Public Accounts Committee records.

The MTA first began renting the property in 2007 for €20,000 a year, when Gulia was a shadow minister. When the 10-year lease elapsed in 2017, the annual rent was raised to €50,000 for another 10-year duration.

The authority is now busy renovating the villa and last year alone issued at least four direct orders worth over €20,000 for the purpose.

Former Labour MP Silvio Grixti’s State payments were also under Sammut’s microscope.

According to the answers to his PQs, Grixti, a medical doctor, earned €143,857 from five different ministries since resigning from parliament under a dark cloud in December 2021 when he was placed under police investigation for issuing irregular sick certificates.

Since then, Grixti earned €68,621 from the Office of the Prime Minister, €50,761 from the Transport Ministry, €23,125 from the Health Ministry, as well as €750 and €600 respectively from the Social Accommodation and the Economy Ministries.

The PQs also showed former MP Etienne Grech, also a doctor, earned €59,651 during the period from the health ministry as an advisor to the entitlement secretariat. Grech had at the time put his resignation down to personal reasons.