The government has sought to appease backbenchers who were disappointed at not being appointed to cabinet by providing them with lucrative chairmanships and consultancies, Nationalist Party deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami said today.

In a press conference held to mark the first year of the present legislature and focusing on the issue of meritocracy, Dr Fenech Adami noted that even though Prime Minister Joseph Muscat appointed the largest cabinet in Malta’s history, the government still made it a point to provide additional appointments – and sources of income – to practically the entire backbench.

He said that given the Labour Party’s strong condemnation of the previous government’s decision to award ministers their parliamentary honorarium over and above their ministerial salary, one would not expect it to favour providing MPs with additional sources of income.

But he went one step further, stating that he was informed that the backbenchers included a number who were disappointed after being left out of cabinet.

Dr Fenech Adami also said that the government’s drive to favour an inner circle of people went beyond appeasing backbenchers, but also included others closely tied to the Labour Party or to Dr Muscat.

He said that it was clear that meritocracy has become a joke, and that what was important was not what people were capable of, but how willing they were to suck up to the government, or whether they had endorsed the Labour Party in last year’s election campaign.

The PN deputy leader said that it was clear that the public had hoped that the Labour Party would ensure that meritocracy is respect, and that many would even have voted for the party for this reason. However, he said, there was now a clear agreement that the government was a complete failure in this regard, and that it worked to fill the pockets of a select few.

He also pointed out that these appointments were taking place at a time where unemployment was on the increase.

In his own intervention, European election candidate Norman Vella stressed that appointing backbenchers to chair public authorities raised concerns about a possible conflict of interest.

“Who will they defend? Who are they most loyal to, the citizens or those who put them in their position,” he asked.

Mr Vella argued that the latter was the most likely option, citing the appointment of Labour’s former legal procurator Peter Paul Zammit as the new police commissioner.

He said that he had a personal experience of what this meant when his arrest was ordered on the basis of a phone call claiming he took pictures of government officials at the Malta International Airport’s departure lounge.