Planning Authority boss Johann Buttigieg now paid over €83,000

The Planning Authority has revealed the salary of its executive chairman after its decision to turn down a Freedom of Information request was not upheld.

The PA had refused MaltaToday’s Freedom of Information request on the executive chairman’s new salary, after first directing the newspaper to make the request in the first place. It reflected the worsening climate of transparency, since the request does not concern a document as defined by the Freedom of Information law.

Those salaries are now in the public domain.

Johann Buttigieg is now earning a basic salary of €83,324 which is then topped up with a €7,000 car allowance, chauffeur, paid fuel and car service, as well as a fully expensed mobile phone and €600 home telephone and internet allowance, and a membership fee in a professional body.

Buttigieg is also eligible for a 15% performance bonus at the end of the year that brings his salary up to over €95,000 annually – one of the highest salaries paid to government officials – and a significant 50% bump over his salary back in 2013.

The chairman of the PA’s planning commission is then paid a basic salary of €38,539 and a general expense allowance of €8,152, including a non-pensionable allowance of €5,727, a telephone allowance (€512), mobile allowance (€815), car allowance of €3,029 or a car, as well as a €1,980 fuel allowance and one broadband internet connection.

Members of the planning commission are paid €33,507 with a general expense allowance of €8,152, a non-pensionable allowance of €4,973, as well as all the other allowances for the PC’s chairman.

In the past, the PA has had no trouble answering similar requests on the salaries paid to former CEO Ian Stafrace and Buttigieg himself.

Buttigieg’s new salary and allowances were under discussion back in January 2017, when the former CEO was appointed executive chairman with added responsibilities, which include chairing the PA’s executive council under the new planning law.

As CEO, Johann Buttigieg was receiving an annual salary of €60,000 then, €10,000 less than his predecessor Ian Stafrace. When he was appointed in 2011, Stafrace received a basic salary of €65,000 – which was set to increase to €70,000 in the second and third years of his appointment.

While Buttigieg is in charge of the day-to-day running of the PA, the PA chairman Vince Cassar is appointed on a part-time basis with a salary of €18,000. In 2013, his predecessor, Austin Walker, who was initially appointed as executive chairman in 2008, received an annual salary of €93,000.

The executive chairperson may only be dismissed by a resolution of the House of Representatives at any time “for a just cause”. The law also specifies that failure to achieve “the targets and objectives set for him by the Minister”, amount to a just cause for dismissal.

Additional reporting by
James Debono