MPs’ declarations: Malta PM Robert Abela holds over €531,000 in bank deposits

Malta’s prime minister Robert Abela has declared bank account deposits totalling over half a million euros.

In parliamentary declarations tabled in April 2020, Abela, who was elected Labour Party leader in January 2020, declared a total deposits in Bank of Valletta accounts of €531,000. Another €2,000 BNF account and less than €1,000 in Lombard were also declared

Abela has also declared 806 shares in HSBC Malta, 2,100 units in Hili Properties unsecured bonds, and 5,000 units in Malta government stock.

The incomes of Abela, a lawyer whose legal firm has enjoyed a long-term retainer with the Planning Authority and also served as a legal consultant to the Cabinet, contrasted those of his predecessor Joseph Muscat, who declared his customary €65,000, his ministerial honorarium as former PM.

Muscat, now a Labour backbencher, now is among a small team of advisors being consulted to help draft Malta’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery plan.

Prime Minister Robert Abela’s law firm, Abela Advocates, have renounced the Planning Authority’s caseload. The law firm informed the PA that it terminated its legal services with the authority as from 13 January 2020, the day Abela was sworn in as Prime Minister.

The lucrative contract had been assigned to Robert Abela’s father, George Abela, when he was a partner with Ian Stafrace, who was later appointed to the PA as chief executive under a Nationalist administration.

In 2017, Abela Advocates received €110,000 for legal services offered to the Planning Authority. The law firm received €168,000 in 2016, €110,000 in 2015 and €88,000 in 2014 in retainers from the PA, awarded by direct order.

It was originally contracted to the PA in 2001, to take over the bulk of legal work when the PA’s own head of legal services Anthony De Gaetano, accused the authority of mishandling a domestic planning matter concerning his property, due to alleged political influence. The PA paid the firm, then known as Abela, Stafrace & Associates, a total of €1.23 million up until 2011 for handling its caseload. The firm was selected through an expression of interest.

The contract was extended into 2013, and then renewed again for the fee of €107,263 annually and €54.99 for each hour of “additional work”.