Government refuses to reveal Lou Bondi’s remuneration

Four months after appointing former TV presenter and old foe, Lou Bondi, on The Foundation for Maltese National Festivities, the government is still refusing to reveal how much the former PN employee is earning.

In June, much to the Labour Party grassroots' dismay, Bondi was appointed on the foundation, chaired by academic and poet Oliver Friggieri. The committee, hand-picked by the Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, was given the task to overcome the partisan nature of national feasts and ensure that the whole country embraces all feasts.

The man Labour loved to hate is rumoured to receive over €15,000, however the Prime Minister's Office has refused to answer numerous questions on whether the 12 members on the foundation are being paid and if so, how much.

Despite the Labour government pledging an open government which would strengthen the principles of transparency, accountability and access to government information, no answer whatsoever has been forthcoming.

The appointment was met by incredulity by Labour stalwarts such as MEP Joseph Cuchieri and derision in other - markedly less hostile - quarters.

For years, the presenter who worked for the Nationalist Party in the 90s, was a thorn in the Labour Party's side, often exposing the party's weaknesses and blunders in his programmes. 

However, this autumn Bondi will not grace our TV screens for the first time in almost two decades, after his programme Bondiplus was not selected by the national station for its autumn/winter schedule.

His controversial appointment was widely perceived as a Machiavellian move by Muscat to legitimise the flurry of contentious appointments of Labour insiders in key positions and to neutralise one of his most vociferous critics.