Diplomatic passport for Joseph Muscat apart from second car and paid chauffeur

Former prime minister Joseph Muscat’s transitional allowance has come with a diplomatic passport, a reply to a parliamentary question has revealed.

The data on Muscat’s severance package was given by Prime Minister Robert Abela to Nationalist MP Graham Bencini.

According to previous PQs, the transitional allowance is based on the top Scale 1 government salary that is payable to prime ministers, with an added 10% topping it up.

Muscat’s termination package saw him receive €120,000, the equivalent of two years of the prime minister’s salary. But he paid €41,633 in directly deductible tax for the allowance.

His predecessor, prime minister Lawrence Gonzi, was paid a sum of €72,901 and a transitional allowance of €8,737, for a total of €81,638.

The former Opposition leader, Simon Busuttil, was paid €23,371 for serving four years as Opposition leader.

Eddie Fenech Adami’s former head of secretariat, Richard Cachia Caruana, was paid €179,931 tax-free despite not being an elected official but a person of trust.

Muscat’s severance package comprises:

-       Terminal benefit/transitional allowance based on his duraction in the House as Opposition leader (from 1 October 2008), to his last day as Prime Minister, 12 January 2020

-       A paid personal assistant, who is a public official

-       The use of an office

-       A paid car with chauffeur

-       A second car

-       His diplomatic passport and similar protocol facilities

-       Two paid telephone landlines and internet connection

-       A computer or laptop with a printer/scanner

-       Maximum €2,330 paid in mobile telephony

Abela also said that former officials have also been paid terminal benefits, eliciting the case of former permanent representative to the EU Richard Cachia Caruana, who was paid a €179,000 non-taxable terminal benefit after he was forced to resign by force of a parliamentary vote of no-confidence; together with a €36,453 notice period and €39,000 in unutilised vacation leave.