Finance and transport ministers report grossly inflated consultancy salaries

The finance ministry and the transport ministry have been found supplying incorrect information to parliament on the remuneration of its various consultants, and, in both cases, the ministries grossly inflated the reported earnings.

The most recent case was that of the finance ministry, of all ministries, which got its numbers wrong earlier this month when the minister tabled the names and salaries of its legal consultants.

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana tabled the list in reply to a parliamentary question from Opposition MP Paula Mifsud Bonnici. It included the entity procuring the services, the name of the legal consultant, the consultancies periods and the amounts paid to each.

A discrepancy came to light when the information tabled in Parliament showed lawyer Mark Simiana was engaged through a direct order by the Office of the Commissioner for Revenue on a gross salary of €22,656 a year. That was, however, the ceiling payment and he is paid per hour, which wasn’t specified in what Caruana tabled in Parliament.

The correct information published in the Government Gazette over a year earlier, in May 2022, showed Simiana was paid at a rate of €59 an hour, excluding VAT.

When contacted, Simiana said the contract was for a specific set of cases and that he had not made more than €1,500 from it last year.

The list published by the ministry and tabled in parliament is extensive and covers the legal services provided to all entities under the finance ministry.

Among other things, the list of consultancies showed how the Malta Financial Services Authority is paying €420 an hour for the services of a US legal firm. The MFSA is also engaging around 10 other firms at fees of between €50 to €220 an hour and employing full-time lawyers, some on salaries of over €120,000 a year.

In the transport ministry’s case, several consultants’ salaries were listed as ranging up to €9,000 plus a month in papers tabled in parliament last May by Minister Aaron Farrugia. Those salaries, however, were on an annual and not a monthly basis.

At the time, several of those mentioned contacted The Shift to point out the errors reported by the minister, which have so far not been corrected by the respective ministers concerned and remain on the parliamentary record.

The full finance ministry list tabled in parliament can be seen here.

The full transport ministry list tabled in parliament can be seen here.