PN MP Beppe Fenech Adami said that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat turned the use of his car into a business-making machine, adding that he would pocket thousands over five years when his car is hardly worth €6,000 today.
Dr Fenech Adami was speaking in parliament this evening during the budgetary measures implementation bill following the Budget’s approval.
Dr Muscat will be netting €35,000 over five years – the length of the legislature – for using his personal car for his prime ministerial duties.
In reply to a PQ submitted by Nationalist MP Claudette Buttigieg last week, Dr Muscat said he had chosen to continue to make use of his personal car for his duties, and will be getting an allowance of €7,000 per year for doing so.
“Is this the party that spoke about meritocracy prior to the election?” Dr Fenech Adami said.
“This is sleaze; these are signs of decadence and in bad taste,” referring to Dr Muscat.
Dr Muscat placed a PM badge and Maltese flag on his personal car and now will personally pocket €35,000 as a result.
Turning to former One TV journalists, he said that they were the first to grasp the opportunity and get their hands on a job within government.
PN MP David Agius meanwhile said that through a parliamentary question, it has been revealed that the Prime Minister is renting his car out to himself.
Recalling the havoc that Labour created when it learnt about the honoraria that was to be awarded to ministers, something he claimed Labour knew about, Mr Agius said it is true Labour had refused receiving the honoraria but had decided to ignore that Dr Muscat’s “personal car rental”, and the special waiver given to Parliamentary Secretary Franco Mercieca to conduct private practice, are not big issues.
He queried who the person who accompanied the Prime Minister during his trip to France was, suggesting that he might have been some friend of a minister.
“How was this person chosen,” through Yellow Pages, he asked, adding that the media should ask the Prime Minister if the person who accompanied him was an official or not.
“We have asked similar questions in the past, for instance, who formed part of the entourage that joined Dr Muscat while in Opposition on his trip to Libya," he said.