Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/187071
13 Interview maltatoday, SUNDAY, 6 OCTOBER 2013 Edward Scicluna has a simple solution to keep Malta's deficit under 3% – keep things as they are. But not without his hawkish attention to what government departments are spending. Now he claims he has already made €20 million in savings from 195 separate areas PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY WONACOTT – DOI cash register "Any finance minister would discourage waste of any resources being used. It could be in a hospital or land itself. Of course, it's a concern, and we must discourage it." As finance minister, Scicluna has also politically come to terms with the reality of the university stipends he once suggested were a drag on government finances. "When I had made those comments, stipends were a high proportion of the minimum wage at 80%. Now, even being tagged at the COLA, they have fallen to 20% of the minimum wage. So they are no longer the cost they were in the beginning. Young people at this age want money. If people fail and don't achieve qualifications, they will consign themselves to a life of misery. We will retain stipends, because they serve as incentives for people to keep on studying, and they encourage children to continue right on into tertiary education." Scicluna is also, expectedly, a supporter of the new Chinese acquisition that will see some €200 million in capital injected into Enemalta in the form of a part-privatisation that however, will see the government retaining control on the enterprise. But he refutes a suggestion that with the new gas plant in the hands of a private company selling gas to Enemalta, and a reported 35% control of Enemalta itself held by the Chinese, the Maltese are losing more control on their energy. "Any fuel has to come from outside Malta, unless we find oil… all our fuel is purchased from abroad, but we don't spend sleepless nights over the fact that all our fuel is imported. The issue at stake is: is Enemalta staying in government hands? Yes. "It's a big, big plus to have a strategic partner. Since I've taken up office, Enemalta has been a nightmare, and the first item on the agenda for every delegation from the Commission, the IMF and the rating agencies. They ask us how it's going to survive, and how we're going to cut the tariffs and make it feasible. "Take the interconnector. Someone is producing the energy in France and distributing it through Italy and to Malta. Again, do we lose any sleep over 'who owns this energy'? Control is what is important: control on decisions, tariffs, and distribution. €200 million is a capital injection that writes a good chunk of our contingent liabilities and debts, when you consider that government has issued €1 billion in letters of comfort for Enemalta's debts. Additionally, the Chinese share will be shouldering a good part of the company. And that in total writes off €400 million of government guarantees." In passing Scicluna mentions energy minister Konrad Mizzi, who recently was taken to task over the employment of his wife Sai Mizzi Liang as an investment promotion envoy for Malta Enteprise, on a reported salary of €33,000. I ask Scicluna whether, in the context of Mizzi having moved from a handsome private sector salary to his minister's salary, he is happy with his own salary. As an MEP for the socialists and democrats, Scicluna was paid close to €90,000 a year before he decided to be appointed minister with less than half his former salary. "It was very unfortunate that the government salaries' increase happened the way it did," referring to the way Lawrence Gonzi increased ministers' salaries and topped it up with their parliamentary honorarium back in 2008 without making it public. "The matter to be discussed is how much should be paid: if this is determined by an independent body, it could be argued and discussed at length and probably solved, something that will probably happen only in the second legislature, if re-elected. From my position in life, I can afford giving five years of service to the country without counting the euros… but obviously I am insulted at the salary a minister gets," Scicluna says when I mention government chief executives half his age on standard salaries of €65,000. "Cabinet salaries must be reviewed in a proper, and pre-announced man- ner. If we want to attract good people to government, if we want a new generation of good people to govern us, we need to pay higher salaries. They needn't be higher than those in the private sector. Even members of the Obama administration left the private sector for a cut in their salaries to serve their country." Equally, Scicluna says that ministers should also give better declarations of the assets they hold, but says that the system as employed by the House of Representatives "is lousy" and that he is not – as formerly estimated by MaltaToday – the second-highest earning minister of the Muscat government. "The declarations as they stand are lousy, they are not clear. We need something clear, and there is room for improvement. The European Parliament's declaration has guidelines. In our case, if someone declares they hold shares, the question is at what value should they be declared: their market value or the value at which they were bought? It's so uneven, it is unfair."