‘This is what pigging out looks like’: PN MPs slam Film Commissioner’s exorbitant pay packet

The Film Commissioner’s €150,000 yearly pay packet is another example of “pigging out” by people close to government, the Nationalist Party said on Monday.

MPs Julie Zahra and Ivan Castillo were reacting to revelations that Film Commissioner Johann Grech is earning an annual pay packet that could reach €150,000. Details of Grech’s four-year contract signed last year were made available to The Shift News following a freedom of information request.

Zahra and Castillo said the Labour government had its priorities wrong at a time when inflation was the biggest concern facing people.

“Government finds the money for those in the inner circle to pig out, but has no money for teachers and it refuses not to tax COLA,” the PN MPs said. “This is what pigging out looks like.”

Grech earns a basic salary of €115,000, a disturbance allowance of €11,500, and an expense allowance of €10,000. His pay packet also includes a fully expensed mobile phone and car.

The MPs also hit out at Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo, who is responsible for the Film Commission, for not answering parliamentary questions related to the public funds spent on the Malta Film Awards and the Mediterrane Film Festival.

It recently became known, following court action filed by the Daphne Foundation, that UK comedian David Walliams was paid €120,000 to host the Malta Film Awards ceremony.