Former Labour MP Luciano Busuttil gets €70,000 government appointment

Aqra bil-Malti.

Former Labour Party MP Luciano Busuttil, a lawyer by profession with an ongoing private practice, has been given a government job as CEO of the recently set up Authority for Integrity in Maltese Sport (AIMS).

His latest appointment comes soon after his resignation as Chairman of Sports Malta – the government agency responsible for sports. Both Sports Malta and the new Authority fall under the political remit of Education Minister Clifton Grima.

According to his contract, published in parliament following questions by Nationalist Party MP Mark Anthony Sammut, Busuttil has been given a salary of more than €44,000 a year plus allowances.

These include a performance bonus, a €6,000 expense allowance, a €4,658 fuel allowance, €1,800 communications allowance and car use. His total package for the supposed full-time job amounts to €70,000.

Sources at the Authority chaired by former judge Antonio Mizzi, husband of ex-Labour MEP Marlene Mizzi said that although the CEO is supposed to dedicate his full-time to the new Authority, he spends most of his time serving clients at the law courts and carrying out work for various other ministries through several other appointments.

Prime Minister Robert Abela had publicly stated that government CEOs would not be allowed to have other jobs.

However, this is not the case for several government CEOs appointed by the very same prime minister. These include ITS CEO Pierre Fenech, Enemalta CEO Ryan Fava, OHSA CEO Josianne Cutajar and recently appointed Project Green CEO Joseph Cuschieri, among many others.

Luciano Busttil served as a Labour MP until 2017 when he announced that he would be ‘retiring’ from politics as he had become “tired of being treated like a prostitute for votes”.

Still, his departure was only from the House of Representatives as he continued to receive government appointments and direct orders.

As disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat always left Busuttil on the back bench, the former Hamrun MP supported Robert Abela to take over the Labour leadership in 2020.

In the meantime, according to various parliamentary questions, Busuttil received some €350,000 from the government in 2023 through multiple roles, including as an advisor at the Education Ministry, Foreign Affairs Ministry, and the Office of the Prime Minister.

Other ministries which paid for Busuttil’s services after he retired from politics, including the Environment and Energy Ministry (€22,883), the Economy, EU Funds and Lands Ministry (€13,600), the Social Policy Ministry (€11,415), the Justice Ministry (€10,715) and the Home Affairs Ministry (€4,566).

Meanwhile, almost two years since its set up, the Authority for Integrity in Maltese Sports does not even have a website.