Robert Abela said this morning Joseph Muscat was given government property in Pietà for his personal use “as part of his severance package”.
The office needed to be searched by the police for evidence of a crime for us to even ever know about it. Which can mean there’s more to the severance package we haven’t heard about yet. That sort of thing – how much a resigning prime minister gets to ease his transition into earning money on their own steam – should be regulated by law, with clear and objective rules, not agreed in a smoke-filled room with a resigning prime minister holding a gun to his successor’s quivering testicles.
How is it these people behave as if public property is theirs to deal? How can either Muscat or Abela ever justify giving public property to someone who no longer works for government to conduct their private business there?
The government must immediately give details of the terms of this arrangement. Has the property been transferred to Joseph Muscat? Does he have any contracted rights on it? Is he its new owner or is he a tenant? What are the terms of the lease? Is it temporary or permanent? Is he paying anything for it?
In principle the government can only give out public land to anyone outside it (outside the government, that is) after a competitive process or by Parliamentary resolution. Neither has happened in this case.
Is this “arrangement” even legal?
Why is it that every fucking peeled layer of the fucking onion that is this government exposes more fucking damp and stinking rot?
One final observation. Has Robert Abela chosen what premium office space in public ownership he’s set eyes on so he can spend the rest of his professional life cashing money rent free?