Prime Minister Robert Abela charged the Planning Authority for more than 1,400 hours of additional work on top of his €3,000 per month tenure, pocketing a cool €80,000 in the process.

Abela, who already pocketed almost €17,000 a month through direct order while working as a lawyer for the Planning Authority, actioned the payment towards the end of 2017 but covered a three year period, extending as far back as May 2014.

The almost €80,000 payment covered additional hours worked during May 2014 and November 2014; December 2014 and July 2015; September 2015 to July 2016; and January 2017. 

Abela’s work at the PA and other government entities before his tenure as Malta’s Prime Minister has been under the microscope in recent weeks. However, the details of his contract and its terms of payment with the PA remains somewhat unclear.

A parliamentary question in 2014 from MP Toni Bezzina does reveal some details. Back then, then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat revealed that Abela’s law firm had been awarded a three-year contract with the PA for just under €3,000 per month and would charge €55 per hour for additional hours worked.

According to those figures, Abela charged the PA for more than 1,450 hours of additional work during that period. That’s almost 20 hours of extra work every single week – and this is not even including his other work as a private lawyer, which also included other lucrative government deals. 

Abela Advocates received remuneration from the PA that amounted to €1.2 million between 2013 and 2019, with Times of Malta reporting that it increased from €7,300 monthly (in 2013) to €17,110 (in 2019) over that period. Additionally, the group also received tens of thousands from the PA for court fees.

These do not include legal consultancies from ARMS, Air Malta, and the Environment Ministry over the same period.

The contract had initially been awarded by a PN administration to Abela Stafrace & Associates. It switched to direct orders once it expired in 2011 and increased substantially after 2013 when the Labour Party was elected into government and with Abela at the helm.

What do you think of the payment?