Speaker of the House of Representatives Anglu Farrugia has hit back at criticism that his 41 trips abroad on parliamentary work in two-and-a-half years have been frivolous.

In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, following a Freedom of Information request filed last July asking for the Speaker’s expense claims, Dr Farrugia presented a foot-high stack of papers containing detailed reports on every single one of these trips.

The Office of the Speaker has accumulated expenses of €38,500 since Dr Farrugia was appointed on 6 April 2013. These expenses, which are over and above the €103,000 in travel expenses, include mobile, fixed line and fuel expenses, as well as hospitality expenses.

“I have not neglected my parliamentary duty,” Dr Farrugia insists when answering questions about his trips abroad.

Dr Farrugia explains that the €23,750 in hospitality expenses are not actually individual expense claims he has made.

“These hospitality expenses are for entertaining foreign delegations. Three hundred such delegations have come to Malta so far, and sometimes I go out for a working lunch with them. These are hospitality expenses for the whole Parliament under my presidency.

“They include the organisation of conferences, book launches such as that of former EU Commissioner Tonio Borg, which was held at Parliament, as well as the reception held after the opening of the new Parliament building.”

“This is not a case of me deciding to go out to lunch because my wife has not cooked for me. As my staff knows, my wife cooks regularly and I like her food,” he jokes.

“We are very careful when it comes to expenses. I believe in scrutiny and accountability, this is the people’s Parliament.”

“These are not my personal expenses. Sometimes I attend working lunches, sometimes I do not.”

 

‘I do not wake up one morning and decide to go to Azerbaijan’

On his extensive travels, Dr Farrugia says it is not a case of him spinning an atlas and deciding to visit a new country.

“I do not wake up one morning and decide to go to Italy, Azerbaijan or the United Nations. These are all official invites.

“These will be official invites to the Speaker of the House. I do not honour all of these invites. Parliament has a department of international relations, headed by a director – Eleanor Scerri – as well as a number of research analysts

“This is a first for Parliament, I asked the government to be able to employ five research analysts.”

Parliament makes use of the services of Giovanni Miceli, an experienced diplomat, who helps in selecting which invites should be accepted.

“We have a lot of international parliamentary obligations by virtue of our international linkages.

“All these obligations mushroom. They do not mushroom because we make them mushroom. Malta, as a Parliament cannot discuss matters in isolation. We have to debate with other fellow Parliamentarians and various other international institutions in order to come out with — if not solutions — a direction.

“We cannot have the government dictating and deciding without parliamentary debate, otherwise that would not be a democracy, it would be something else.

“These 41 trips are official invites by international organisations and parliamentary assemblies.”

Picking one of these trips at random and asking the Speaker what was achieved – a trip to Saudi Arabia between 23 and 25 November, Dr Farrugia is immediately able to justify his travels.

“A lot of things were discussed in Saudi Arabia, such as Islamic finance. Europe has to understand how this works, and to its credit, the Maltese government has understood this as the budget has foreseen the introduction of Islamic Finance in Malta.

“We discussed this profoundly in Saudi Arabia. The financing in these countries is not the same as in Europe.

“A number of exchanges have also been held with Saudi students coming to Malta in order to study medicine.

“I rarely went alone during these trips abroad. I am very careful that if one MP from the Labour Party is invited, an MP from the Nationalist Party will be invited as well.

“Impartiality and transparency always has to be present.”

On this note, the Speaker points out that he has done a lot of work to ensure that Parliament is open to public scrutiny, and he spearheaded the establishment of a parliamentary journal detailing its works.

 

Flying economy

Dr Farrugia is also quick to point out that during his trips abroad, he always makes it a point to fly economy and use low-cost airlines, despite being entitled to fly business class.

“The Finance Department has been strengthened, there is more scrutiny. I try to lead by example. If there is a low-cost option I will use it. When I was officially invited to Romania, they were expecting me to arrive with pomp, and then they saw me coming off a Wizzair flight. I do it with dignity.”

Drawing comparisons with the previous Speaker Michael Frendo, Dr Farrugia says he has done more with less money.

“Thirty-eight countries have been visited and over 110 MPs have been taken with me on the various trips abroad, at a cost of €103,000. Michael Frendo by comparison spent €105,000 going to 23 countries with around 60MPs.

“I am doing more work with less money. With regard to my home in Sicily, I can assure you that I do not need to wait for an official invitation to go there. I visit my Sicily home every month or six weeks, I do not wait for a conference to come around. I have declared the property there and pay all my taxes on it.”

Any unused funds for travels are actually refunded to the government. For example, in 2014, the government granted Parliament a travel budget of €210,000 which is used to fund the Speaker’s and MPs’ trips abroad. The actual expenditure was €177,735, meaning that €32,265 was refunded to the government.

Asked if he agreed that Parliament has to refund this money rather than benefit from the savings, Dr Farrugia says this is all part of his quest to seek more autonomy for Parliament.

“I do not agree with the system. We are striving for Parliament to be truly autonomous, so it can have a three-year budget plan that it can present to the House Business Committee, rather than going to the government asking for money.

“I thank the government which saw we are trying to be more autonomous and gave us a further €300,000 to allow us to expand our Parliamentary diplomacy role.

“Five research analysts were employed, and without them, MPs going abroad would not be properly prepared.

“The Parliamentary Services Act has been passed on to the Opposition leader and government. Now it is up to them to move forward. The longer we take to become autonomous, the more Parliament will suffer.

“I have to wait on the government in order for me to do things. All I am asking for is for Parliament to be like in other countries, we are one of the few countries with no Parliamentary autonomy.”

 

MPs asset declarations

All Members of Parliament are obliged to file an annual declaration of their assets, though not all MPs take the matter seriously, and the often handwritten declarations can be described as haphazard at best.

Dr Farrugia says he is not at all satisfied by the manner in which this is done.

“No, of course I am not happy. I am completely unhappy and disillusioned about it. One of the things I insist on is having a Parliamentary Commissioner of Standards.

“A draft bill on the appointment of such a Commissioner is being discussed. He should have the ability to investigate incorrect or false asset declarations. It will not stop there. If he sees the investigation transcends an ethical one, the Commissioner can send the MPs declaration to the Police Commissioner.

“At the moment, all I have is a depository. MPs give in their declarations and all I can do is look at them.

“I do not even have the power to pass on the declaration to the Commissioner to investigate; I just do not have the power.”

 

Pro-rata pay for MPs and posting of attendance records online

One of the Labour Party’s electoral pledges was for MPs to be docked their honoraria whenever they missed a Parliamentary sitting or committee meeting. MPs attendance records were also supposed to be published online for all to see.

So far, neither of these pledges has been implemented.

Asked about this, Dr Farrugia points out that it is a government commitment.

“The government made a commitment in its electoral programme; MPs have to honour their work. Discussions have taken place with the government, and various meetings were held with Deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech.

“This has to be discussed with the government and Opposition in order for the necessary amendments to the standing orders to take place. The concept is there, the standing orders state that Lm 1 (€2.33) can be docked for every missed committee meeting or sitting. The concept is there.”

 

€3.6 million annual rent for new Parliament building

The Speaker says he is going to be asking the government for “a lot of money,” as the rent paid by Parliament has shot up to €3.6 million from the €31,000 that used to be paid for the use of the Palace.

“We moved here and just for Parliament to move here — and I believe this building is important for Parliament — we need to pay €3.6 million a year to Malita, a company set up by the previous government.  This rent is payable at a fixed annual rate for 20 years, which can then be renewed.”

Dr Farrugia says he is also “infected” by the problem of the “infamous contractors,” and some works on the new Parliament building have yet to be completed.

The Parliament building has not yet got full CCTV coverage, and other pending issues exist which the Speaker says will hopefully be sorted by the time Parliament reconvenes on 5 October.

 

Free parking

Something that has riled many people is seeing the Speaker’s official car parked between the two Parliament buildings.

Dr Farrugia denies that he is in any way abusing his power by doing so.

“I have a permit to park there by the Transport Authority. There was much ado about the car, but I do not hold it against anyone, we are living in a democracy.

“The Speaker’s car is frequently spotted parked in between the two Parliament buildings. Not an abuse, I have a permit to park there by the Transport Authority. The important thing is to tell the truth. At the Palace, the Speaker used to park the car inside.

“When we moved here, Transport Malta told me to park it there. It might have annoyed some people, but what can I do, there are many things that annoy me in life.”