Special envoy Alex Sciberras Trigona on €35,000 salary

Former Labour Minister Alex Sciberras Trigona acting as Prime Minister’s special envoy on €35,000 salary.

3 February 2014, 12:00am
by Jurgen Balzan

1 min read

Alex Sceberras Trigona, the former foreign affairs minister under the Dom Mintoff Labour administration between 1981 and 1987 earns €34,684 as the Prime Minister's special envoy to the World Trade Organisation, a reply to a parliamentary question revealed.

The Prime Minister Joseph Muscat tonight said that Sceberras Trigona is one of three special envoys engaged by his office. The other envoys are Joseph Zammit Tabona and Maria Camilleri.

Sceberras Trigona, a controversial figure throughout the turbulent Labour years in the eighties, is on a Scale 3 salary and is entitled to free mobile telephony and internet at home, A class subsistence allowance and travel and refundable hospitality and transports costs when abroad.

Sceberras Trigona has presented his credentials as Malta's new Permanent Representative to the WTO in Geneva.

Zammit Tabona, the former High Commissioner to the UK was last year appointed special envoy for business promotion and also earns €34,684 a year.

On the other hand, former Labour MP and the current head of the Muslim school, Mariam Albatool in Paola refused the Scale 3 salary in her role as the prime minister's special envoy for Arab countries.

Instead, Camilleri settled for a €100 monthly payment to cover expenses she might incur in her role.

Jurgen Balzan was a MaltaToday reported from 2011 to 2017.

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So Mr. Jurgen Balzan do you expect to pay envoys peanuts? Why do you say that AST was a controversial figure? I bet you were still not born in the 80s. So where from do you get such crap?

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I do not expect certain reports by the maltatoday reporters because I believe that they are more fair and balanced in their comments. But this report is certainly not one of them. This report made a lot of noise because 2 envoys are being paid a fair remuneration for their work and gave less importance to the refusal of the same amount of remuneration by Ms Camilleri. In fact I believe that the last 2 paragraphs should have been given the best prominence because there are still people who would give a lot more to the country from their heart and not because of the money. Well done Ms Maria Camilleri.