Muscat’s consultants cost at least €218,478 a year

Information tabled in Parliament reveals salaries of Prime Minister's consultants, including former BBC news editor 

Consultant Rob van de Water sits next to foreign minister George Vella during a meeting in Kyiv with Joseph Muscat and Victor Yanukovych in September 2013. Photo: DOI
Consultant Rob van de Water sits next to foreign minister George Vella during a meeting in Kyiv with Joseph Muscat and Victor Yanukovych in September 2013. Photo: DOI

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s current crop of consultants cost at least €218,478 a year, information tabled in Parliament has revealed.

The exact figure is unknown, because the salaries of two of the consultants – Rob van der Water and Robert Musumeci – were not listed as part of the information revealed in reply to a PQ by Opposition MP Kristy Debono.

For the first time, the list reveals that former ONE journalist Ramona Attard has been contracted as a consultant for the implementation of a communications strategy on a €2,687 monthly salary – equivalent to a whopping €32,239 per year.

This is Attard’s third public sector job since Labour’s election to power in 2013 and the second one that appears to have been specifically created for her.

She had earlier served as head of secretariat for parliamentary secretary Ian Borg before joining the team of former home affairs minister Manuel Mallia as communications coordinator. She was later also made deputy chief of staff, an entirely new position that – combined with her communications job – allowed her to maintain her original €30,000 salary under Borg.

Rob van de Water is contracted as Muscat’s foreign affairs consultant, but the cost of his consultancy fees wasn’t tabled.

The Dutchman’s LinkedIn account shows that he has been working as Muscat’s consultant since July 2013, coinciding with his advisory role to then Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. In September 2013, Van de Water joined a government delegation to Kiev led by Muscat to sign a double taxation treaty with then-Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovych, the details of which have never been released. The meeting took place a few months before Yanukovych was overthrown from power in last year’s fateful Ukraine Revolution.

Former BBC news editor Leslie Skipper has been contracted as a “technical consultant” on a tidy €43,660 annual salary.

He is also listed as a media trainer at Templars, a London-based public relations consultancy firm. The firm’s website describes him as a “speechwriter, who provides the words to get people listening” and who “takes clients on a journey through the opportunities and pitfalls of presentations and media interviews”. 

Elsewhere, Aaron Grech – head of the Central Bank’s modeling and research department – has been contracted as an economic advisor on a €20,000 annual salary. Anton Sevasta, chief ICT officer at the home affairs ministry, is providing digital media advisory services at €14,160 a year.

Deputy Labour leader Toni Abela provides political and legal consultancy free of charge.

The list also shows that former Nationalist rebel backbencher Franco Debono provides consultancy on justice reform to Muscat for €17,000 a year, while international law professor David Attard provides “consultancy at the Office of the Prime Minister” for €17,405.

Outgoing university rector Juanito Camilleri has served as OPM consultant on EU targets and the Lisbon Agenda since 2006, and he is currently the most expensive advisor at a rate of €59,935.    

SZA Law Firm, named after the initials of its managing partner and former PL president Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, provides legal consultancy on broadcasting and digital media for €7,080 a year. Audit firm Nexia BT provides “advisory services on the preparation of national projects”.for €48,231 a year.

Elsewhere, lawyer Josette Sultana earns €7,000 for legal consultancy to planning parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon, whose office falls under the direct responsibility of Castille. Architect Robert Musumeci acts as a part-time consultant to Falzon on “strategy and priorities”. His exact salary isn’t specified, with the government only revealing that the former PN Siggiewi mayor earns a salary equivalent to scale 4 on the public sector scale.