Malta – European MEP's – Wow what Salary Package

No wonder our dedicted ‘Servants’ fight a hard battle to represent us tax payers in the EU, look at their Salary and benefits package that they get, while the rest of the population struggles to make ends meet and the ever growing Government induced expenses.Read the following:

  43 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9JA

www.taxpayersalliance.com

 

 

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RESEARCH NOTE 47

‘THE GREAT EUROPEAN RIP-OFF’

A BACKGROUND NOTE EXPLAINING HOW AN

MEP CAN BECOME A MILLIONAIRE IN JUST

ONE 5-YEAR TERM AT THE EUROPEAN

PARLIAMENT

The Great European Rip-Off:

 

How the corrupt wasteful EU is taking

control of our lives

 

by David Craig and Matthew Elliott will be published by

Random House on 5 March 2009.

In the book we calculate that any MEP can easily save over £1 million from

their expenses and pension benefits from just one 5-year term at the

European Parliament.

At the same time, a British MEP will get a salary of £63,291 a year (£316,455

over 5 years). However, in our calculations we have assumed MEPs will spend

all this £316,455 on their and their families’ living costs and so have not

included MEPs’ salaries in our estimates of how MEPs can become millionaires

in just 5 years.

This note uses an exchange rate of €1:80p, which is the 2008 average rate.

This is more conservative than the rate used in the book, of £1:€1.1 and

shows that the result is robust to different exchange rate assumptions. If the

calculations were carried out using today’s exchange rates the estimate of the

amount an MEP could save, in pounds, would be much higher.

Summary of how much an MEP can save (excluding salary):

 

Item Saved over 5 years

1 Subsistence Allowance €117,000

2 Assistants’ Allowance €489,840

3 Office Expenses €243,120

4 Travel Expenses €60,000

Total €909,960

Total in £ at €1 = £0.80 £727,968

Value of accrued pension £350,000

Total savings in one 5-year term £1,077,968

43 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9JA

1. Salary

Currently a British MEP is paid the same as a Westminster MP – £63,291.

Paying British income taxes, depending on their family circumstances a British

MEP will pay about £16,456 income tax (26 per cent), leaving the MEP about

£46,835 to take home. After the June 2009 European Parliament, all MEPs

from all countries will be paid the same – at least €7,665 a month (€91,980 a

year). On this they will typically (again depending on family circumstances)

pay a special European Union tax of €13,797 (15 per cent) leaving them a

take-home pay of €78,183.

With an exchange rate of €1 = £0.80 this would raise a British MEP’s total

salary after June 2009 to £73,584 (a rise of 16 per cent) and give an increase

in take-home pay from £46,835 to £62,546 (a rise of 33 per cent). However,

the exchange rate has also moved in their favour since 2008. If exchange

rates remain at around €1:88p then their take home pay will increase to

£68,801. That will mean that a combination of the pay rise, more favourable

tax treatment and the change in the exchange rate leave MEPs with a 47 per

cent rise in their take home pay.

In calculating how any MEP can become a millionaire in just one 5-year term

at the European Parliament, we have assumed that MEPs spend all their

salaries on their day-to-day living expenses and so have not included any

money from salaries in the calculation.

2. Subsistence Allowance

For each day an MEP signs in, they can claim a Subsistence Allowance of

€287 tax free. British MEPs call this the SOSO (sign on and sod off)

allowance, because all you have to do to get it is to sign in. There is no

requirement to attend a single debate or committee session. What you do for

the rest of the day is up to you. Assuming an MEP signs in four days a week

for forty weeks, they will get €1,148 a week – €45,920 a year (nb about 70

MEPs each week also sign in on a Friday to get the subsistence allowance

before going home for the weekend).

A few years ago, some MEPs slept in their offices in order to avoid paying for

hotels so they could save more of their subsistence money. This is now

discouraged by the parliamentary authorities. However, a reasonable 3-star

hotel close to the European Parliament buildings will cost less than €125 a

night including breakfast, leaving over €162 a day for lunch and dinner. But,

any MEP signing in for 4 days a week will only spend 3 nights (Monday,

Tuesday and Wednesday) in a Brussels hotel. Likewise an MEP signing in for 5

days a week will only spend 4 nights in a hotel.

 

 

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There are subsidised restaurants in the European Parliament buildings and on

many days there are free breakfasts, lunches and dinners organised by

lobbying groups and political parties. In the evenings these typically serve

almost unlimited quantities of champagne and other drinks and expensive

canapés of smoked salmon, caviar, patés and other delicacies. One MEP

recently complained, “In these times of economic crisis what image are we

portraying? Every corner of the parliament is filled with receptions and buffet

dinners, while our constituents are being thrown out of their homes, losing

their jobs or having difficulty paying their food and energy bills.” Moreover,

there are over 15,000 lobbyists in Brussels all keen to wine and dine MEPs in

order to advance the interests of their paymasters.

If we assume that MEPs are paying about €60 each a day three days a week

for lunch and dinner (in reality, it is probably much less) and staying in a

hotel 3 nights a week at €125 a night, each MEP can pocket about €585 each

4-day week tax free from their subsistence allowance. Over 40 weeks this

gives them around €23,400 a year tax-free. Over one 5-year term this adds

up to €117,000 tax free.

3. Assistants’ Allowances

The biggest pot of money MEPs can dip into is for employing staff. Currently

this stands at about €202,968 per MEP per year. This allowance has increased

by an inflation-busting 34 per cent in the last five years. There are no

guidelines regulating how much an assistant should be paid, and MEPs are

permitted to pay a large portion of their allowance to just one person. Some

even do this, creating the absurd situation where MEPs’ assistants are

apparently paid much more than the MEPs for whom they work. There are

even cases where up to eight MEPs will share the services of one or two

assistants, potentially allowing each of them to make massive profits from

claiming the full Assistants’ Allowance.

Many MEPs use this allowance to pay members of their own family. The

amount is so generous that an MEP can easily afford to slip their partner or

offspring €50,000 to €60,000 a year for the occasional helping hand and still

have enough loose change to employ more than one full-time secretary and a

few researchers. Some MEPs dispense with the formality of handing the cash

to a family member and just pay some of it to themselves. The Galvin Report

uncovered widespread abuse of the Assistants’ Allowances including cases

where MEPs claimed they had given their assistants annual bonuses of up to

19 times the assistants’ monthly salaries – curiously these bonuses often

seemed to be exactly the right amount to use up the whole of the MEPs’

annual Assistants’ Allowance.

If we assume that an MEP is employing one full-time secretary for about

€35,000 a year (including social security charges) and 2 research assistants

 

 

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each also on €35,000 a year, then this gives the MEP an annual salary bill of

€105,000. This leaves the MEP €97,968 which he or she can pay to members

of their family or just to themselves (usually via a paying agent company of

which they or family members are directors).

Over one 5-year term this adds up to €489,840 tax free.

4. Office Expenses

Each MEP is provided with two fully furnished, rent-free offices in the

European parliament building, one for themselves and one for their

secretaries and assistants.

However, they are also given an office allowance of €48,624 a year for having

an office in their constituency. Here too no receipts are required to get this

money. As one MEP said, ‘there is no need to present receipts for office

expenses and there’s no audit. You could use the allowance for any purpose

you like.’ Many MPs claim that their constituency office is in their own home.

This allows them to rent out a room in their homes to themselves, which they

pay for with EU taxpayers’ money. Some even just take all the money without

bothering to have a constituency office at all.

At €243,120 tax free over five years, this is probably a welcome addition to

many MEPs’ household budgets. In some EU countries it’s enough to buy a

home, or it could be used to pay for a nice holiday flat near the

Mediterranean.

5. Weekly Travel Expenses

In addition, MEPs get very generous travel expenses. They can claim weekly

flights from their constituencies. Here they do actually need to provide some

proof that they have travelled. However, they just have to submit the stub

from the boarding pass – they are not asked for any information about how

much they have paid for their ticket. They are then reimbursed for a fully

flexible economy class ticket, plus an extra payment for distance travelled of

over €100 for every 500 kilometres, all usually adding up to comfortably more

than a business class fare.

By buying cheap weekend return tickets or by travelling on budget airlines,

(Ryanair and Easyjet between them fly from Brussels to more than 40

European cities) many MEPs can rake in more than €300 a week tax free.

German MEPs living in Berlin, for example, could, according to one report,

make a profit of around €800 each time they travelled to Brussels and over

€1,000 for every trip to Strasbourg.

 

 

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If we assume an MEP is only making about €300 a week forty weeks a year,

this would give them a tax-free profit of €12,000 a year – €60,000 tax free

over one 5-year term

MEPs also get an annual travel allowance of €4,000 a year to go anywhere in

the world as long as this travel is connected with their work as an MEP. The

Caribbean and the Far East seem to be popular destinations, with one MEP

justifying a trip to exotic Thailand on the basis of a half-hour meeting at the

EU’s Bangkok offices. Perhaps the MEP wasn’t aware that he could have

considerably reduced the cost to the taxpayer and saved himself a lot of

unnecessary travelling time by making a conference call. However, here we

have assumed that MEPs do actually use their annual €4,000 travel allowance

and so have not included this money in the calculation of how much an MEP

can save.

6. Pensions

As our politicians preside over a worsening pensions crisis that will leave most

private-sector workers in poverty in their old age, they have made sure that

they have one of the best pensions schemes in Europe.

Typically, government employees across Europe would have to work for

around 40 years to get a pension worth about half their final salary. Politicians

in the British parliament have a much better deal and have to work for only

20 years to achieve an inflation-protected pension for them and their partner

of half their final salary. Any other British worker would have to pay about

£50,000 a year into their pension scheme to get similar benefits to their MPs.

Calculation for an MP:

Each year a Westminster MP works they accrue 1/40

 

of their final salary as

an inflation-linked pension. On the current salary of £63,291, this would be

worth £1,582 a year in pension. (By the time most MPs retire, their salary will

have increased, also increasing their pensions). With annuity rates for joint,

inflation-protected pensions currently around 3.5 per cent, this pension is

equivalent to an MP putting about £45,200 a year into their pension savings –

most only pay a tiny fraction of that, the taxpayer will pay the rest.

Calculation for an MEP:

For each year an MEP works, they accrue about 1/30

 

 

 of their final salary as

an inflation-linked pension. On the current salary of £63,291, this would be

worth about £2,110 a year in pension. (By the time most MEPs retire, their

salary will have increased, also increasing their pensions). With annuity rates

for joint, inflation-protected pensions currently around 3.5 per cent, this

pension is equivalent to an MEP putting about £60,285 a year into their

 

 

 

 

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pension savings – most only pay a tiny fraction of that, the taxpayer will pay

the rest.

After the June 2009 elections, with a salary of £73,584, each year a MEP

works will give an annual inflation-linked pension of about £2,450, equivalent

to putting £70,000 a year into their pension savings.

So, over a 5-year term, a British MEP’s pension savings would typically be

equivalent to the taxpayer making contributions of around £350,000.

In addition MEPs can save for an additional voluntary EU pension. For every

€1,000 they paid per month into their pension scheme, the EU would pay

double that amount. MEPs are allowed to pay this extra €1,000 from their

€48,624 office expenses. In theory, they are then supposed to reimburse this

money from their own bank accounts. However, everything relies on the

MEPs’ honesty. Unsurprisingly, a few years ago MEPs voted down a proposal

that EU parliament auditors should check whether any of them actually do

repay this money.

7. Summary

Adding all this up, a typical British, French or German MEP will be getting over

€460,000 a year in salary, pension and expenses – more than €2.3 million for

each five-year period in Brussels. With a bit of judicial financial management,

they can probably save as follows:

Item Saved over 5 years

1 Subsistence Allowance €117,000

2 Assistants’ Allowance €489,840

3 Office Expenses €243,120

4 Travel Expenses €60,000

 

Value of accrued pension £350,000

Total savings in one 5-year term £1,077,968

If you are the EU candidate for one of the main political parties, you have

about a one in three chance of scoring your EU millions – all in all, much

better odds than winning the EuroMillions lottery or else correctly answering

all the questions on

 

 

 

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

8 Even More Benefits.

 

 

7

Even when MEPs lose their seats in the European parliament, they don’t have

to bid goodbye to the financial benefits immediately. Once they leave office

MEPs continue to enjoy a ‘transitional allowance’ (basically their parliamentary

salaries) for anything from six months to two years, depending on their length

of service. So for just 5 years at the Parliament, this would be worth a

minimum of over £30,000 to a British MEP. MEPs can also keep on using the

parliament’s subsidised restaurants and cafeterias, libraries and telephone

facilities in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. Moreover, once they start

drawing their EU pensions, these are subject to special, low EU tax rates and

not the, usually much higher, tax rates in whichever country they may retire

to.

The benefits of being an MEP don’t stop here. MEPs also have a huge list of

other entitlements that are generously subsidised by Europe’s taxpayers. If

they take language and computer courses we pay their fees, travel and living

expenses. They have full, free accident insurance, travel insurance and life

assurance. They and their families get money for spectacles, contact lenses

and dental treatment. One British dentist pointed out that MEPs could claim

up to four times more for the cost of dental work than he could get for doing

that work under his National Health Service contract. MEPs and their families

can also get full payment for things like hydrotherapy, mud baths, aerosol

therapy and acupuncture.

 

 Dowload the leaked Galvin report:

http://freemediaproductions.newsvine.com/_news/2009/02/25/2474785-secret-report-shows-how-eu-parliament-members-pocketed-millions

 

un-from-euronews1

Malta – New Centers for Illegal Immigrants

Malta Detention regime of Irregular Migrants criticised

Malta MEP elections 2009 – PN/PL in a panic

The PN and PL are stumbling over each other, in trying to present themselves as the defenders of the Maltese Public and the future of the Maltese Islands.

You could smell an election in Malta, by the sudden Political agenda springing to life. The failure of both the PN and the PL, to keep mum for years, in regards to Malta’s invasion of the islands by illegal immigrants, has now caught up with both the major parties. Mr Gonzi and Co, including the PN MEP’s have now realized how naive they were in trusting the EU to assist and help Malta in alleviating the burden of illegal immigrant, with promise after promise that the EU is about to start tackling this problem seriously, something that not only did not materialize, but even our neighbor Italy made a mockery of our Government. Our illegal immigration spokesman in the EU, after all kinds of promises in imminent EU assistance has now resigned from the idea that the EU is four square behind him on his action plan, with the EU resigning to the idea that Malta will be lost to the illegal immigrants.

Gonzi and Co have been now exposed to the Maltese public, for what they really are. Last minute springing to life regarding this issue will not help the PN in non other by being despised by the current and future Maltese, for not coming to our defense when they were duty bound to defend the Maltese public who elected them. Instead they chose willingly not to, just to please other Countries. They have now sprung to life because they know that the public will be showing their anger with vengeance, they will give their answer the PN for branding the Maltese public racists and xenophobes in the polls in the upcoming MEP elections, they will reply to the legislation against the Maltese public by passing anti-Maltese laws for those that speak and voice their opinion against the settling and integration in Malta of illegal immigrants. The public will show their anger against the current Government for squandering their taxed income on illegal immigration while creating all kinds of hardship on the Maltese families by creating all kinds amily:TTE1B7C7A8t00;”>

Malta – New Centers for Illegal Immigrants

It looks like the Maltese Government is testing the waters, by leaking to the Media, ‘that Government owned property in various locations around Malta is being converted into housing and detention centers for illegal immigrants’, the Maltese Government denied these allegations and dismissed them as rumors.

 

 

For those that do not know the PN and Government strategy, I can give an insight to the plan in progress.

First objective is to leak to the Media that Government is planning to increase shelters (open and closed centers) for illegal immigrants – this will create a public reaction and opposition to the Government plan.

Second objective: The Government denies any plan of further expansion of illegal immigrant shelters – this will amount to the public seeing their city/village/town being spared from having illegal immigrants in their home area, where PN strategist for the EU MEP elections will spread rumors that the PN will be taking strong stance against integrating illegal immigrants in other localities around Malta apart from those already operating.

June MEP’s election concluded, where PN MEP hopefuls are elected

Malta PN Government reverts to his original plan and starts developing public property to serve as free housing for the thousands of illegal immigrants due for release from detention in the second half of the year.

That is identical to the strategy used prior to the last general elections in Malta by the PN and the same tactics will be used, alienate and deny self created rumors but the public starts getting used to the idea, Government heavily denies this rumor (PN supporters tend to believe that their party will never lie to them), after the MEP elections the Maltese Government will disown his citizens in lieu of the illegal Immigrants and EU promises of help and free Euros.

It is the same status quo that our dear PN MEP representative has been promising for the last five years, where he promised deterrent Frontex patrols which turned out to be a shuttle service from Libya to Malta with illegal immigrants to the voluntary burden sharing policy that no other EU country seems to take this bait and take at least one illegal immigrant just for courtesy . To all kinds of other bureaucratic offices that will be or are opened to deal with illegal immigration. With the usual  lies to calm public opinion.

The truth is that while our Energy Minister, keeps on saying that he is providing low cost energy to 138,333 families  out of 190,342 or 73 per cent of all families will be benefitting from ECO reductions , to which 3000 low income families will have direct Government Benefits.

Can you imagine Malta within 15 years time. Most of our qualified workers which cost our education system millions in tax money will be gone to build a better future in some other EU country, and rightly so. While Malta will be burdened with most of unskilled an ever increasing illegal immigrant population (if they do not carry any identification papers , surely our Authorities are not gullible enough to take their word for it as being engineers, doctors etc, I think anyway).

So Malta has been relegated to the unskilled, back to the production factories. The PN promised a high end product but ended up giving future generations the lowest product nobody else in the EU wants. So I guess what a PN Minister one said that the manufacturing industry in Malta is as good as dead must have been wrong, as he will need them back when most of the illegal immigrants are on our streets, with rights to work, unless he prefers handing them all the social assistance packages.

Malta, I pity your future. Once the PN pictured a nice future for you and your future generations. Now their pride and arrogance have vowed to destroy you and wipe you from the face of the earth, and give your hard earned Country, paid for by your forefather’s blood and courage, to aliens that do not care about you, your history, or your future. All they care about is getting their free ride off a hard working nation, in compliance with their accomplices’ that stand to benefit from crime in illegal trade of humans (NGO’s and Jesuits). Same like blackmailing illegal immigrants by giving them 5000 euros to return home is not a viable scheme, as that in itself is an incentive to come to Malta. Free tax payers money with no benefit for the Nation. It serves Malta right to be flooded with the millions of Africans wanting to do the crossing into Europe and I can never blame the human traffickers for targeting Malta either, as there has never been any attempt to see who these traffickers are or that illegal immigrants freedom was ever coupled with any successful arrest of any trafficker. But by God do I blame the Maltese Government, the EU and the Maltese Authorities for flooding Malta with illegal immigrants.

Remember, every cent given in charity towards Africa, is giving a potential future illegal immigrant coming to your home country and taking your, your son’s/daughter’s, or son’s son/ daughter’s daughter  future. Africa does not need aide, Africa is richer than all the EU countries combined, All Africa needs is to stop being a beggar and a haven for crime (African Corrupt Governments and their Military backing). So if the World wants to help Africa, its’ not monetary but by enforcing their Governments to comply and sign UN conventions and for aide to be conditioned and coupled with Western Education and western monitors that they are being compliant. If need be the West should be able to assist militarily an elected Government that values human rights.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what Dambisa Moyo had to say about Africa in her book Dead Aide:

 Dead Aid
by Dambisa Moyo

There is no doubt: we want to help. The well-documented horrors of extreme poverty around the world have created a moral imperative that people have responded to in their millions. Yet the poverty persists. At a time of unprecedented global prosperity, children are starving to death. Are we not being generous enough? Or is the problem somehow insoluble, an inevitable outcome of historical circumstance? In this provocative and compelling book, Dambisa Moyo argues that the most important challenge we face today is to destroy the myth that Aid actually works. In the modern globalized economy, simply handing out more money, however well intentioned, will not help the poorest nations achieve sustainable long-term growth. “Dead Aid” analyses the history of economic development over the last fifty years and shows how Aid crowds out financial and social capital and feeds corruption; the countries that have ‘caught up’ did so despite rather than because of Aid. There is, however, an alternative. Extreme poverty is not inevitable. Dambisa Moyo shows how, with improved access to capital and markets and with the right policies, even the poorest nations can prosper.If we really do want to help, we have to do more than just appease our consciences, hoping for the best, expecting the worst. We need first to understand the problem.

The Diary: Dambisa Moyo
By Dambisa Moyo

Published: February                 28 2009 00         :18 | Last updated: February                28 20…       :18

As I touch down in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, I am not sure what to expect. My flight has been smooth and incident-free, and the airport is as anonymously modern as any international airport. But it is hard to arrive in Rwanda without thoughts of the 1994 genocide of 1m people.

I have come to Rwanda at the invitation of President Paul Kagame, whose aides had seen an account of a Lunch with the FT that I had had a month or so ago in London with William Wallis, the paper’s Africa editor. Over lunch at Angela Hartnett’s chic new Italian restaurant we had discussed the World Bank (where I worked for a couple of years) and Dead Aid, a book I have just written arguing against dependence on foreign aid and offering alternative ways to finance development. Now I am here in Kigali to address senior cabinet officials and other leading Rwandans.

Irene, a young presidential aide, meets me at the airport, and within minutes we are in an air-conditioned official car hurtling down one of many lusciously green hills surrounding Kigali – Rwanda is, I am told by everyone I meet, known as the land of 1,000 hills.

The city of Kigali, home to about a million people, is itself strikingly green and clean. I was born in Lusaka, Zambia, live in London and have lived in numerous cities across the United States, apart from travelling extensively, but Kigali still comes as a jolt to my sensibilities. The country has a stringent anti-plastic bag policy and on one Saturday every month Rwandans get together to pick up litter and spruce up their surroundings.

In the evening at the Novotel, I address a meeting, hosted by the country’s prime minister, of 200 eminent Rwandans about some of the ideas from my book about how to develop long-term sustainable growth independent of foreign aid. I am told by more than one guest, “You are preaching to the converted” – an interesting choice of words, incidentally, in this highly religious country (about 95 per cent of Rwandans are said to be practising Christians).

It turns out that the president and his government are about to go on a week-long retreat to a town in western Rwanda to discuss the country’s development strategy, and a key item on the agenda will be how to wean the country off aid.

Following Kagame’s lead, Rwanda is already obsessed with turning the “no-aid” development theory into a reality. This is not to say that the country does not use aid, nor that all of the country’s aid programmes have been wholly ineffective (some argue that the country has managed to eradicate malaria using aid programmes). But the fact that Rwanda’s leadership is actively making strides away from aid dependency is a clear acknowledgement that they feel, as I do, that engagement with the markets is the proper way to deliver long-term growth and to reduce poverty.

Women feature prominently across the political spectrum in Rwanda: more than half the members of parliament are women, as are the chief justice, the speaker of parliament, and 40 per cent of the cabinet. One of my hosts suggests this is largely a legacy of the genocide, as many men were killed and families disbanded. Women frequently took charge of the homes and have been – and are – central to rebuilding the country.

Yet another woman from the president’s office accompanies me to the Gisozi genocide memorial, a 15-minute drive from the centre of Kigali. It is a beautiful garden, where the remains of as many as 300,000 victims (many of them unidentified children) have been laid to rest.

As we leave the centre, we stop to look at a video in which a Rwandan survivor is saying, and I paraphrase, how he wishes “the global community would just learn to keep its word on the promises it makes”.

The highlight of my trip comes, on Valentine’s Day, at the official residence where I meet President Kagame, the key architect of the country’s rebuilding since 1994. He turns out to be chatty, opinionated, thoughtful and charismatic. I’d been told that he works all hours of the day and is the mastermind behind “Team Rwanda”, the exercise to bring the country back from the brink of what could have been a permanent disaster. At the core of the strategy is a mix of nation-building and political savvy – Prime Minister Bernard Makuza, for example, comes from an opposition party.

Challenges remain. The country remains desperately poor (per capita income is less than US$1,000). Which is why it is even more puzzling that an economy whose budget is at least 70 per cent dependent on foreign aid would dare to work towards less help.

What, I ask, infuriates the president about aid? As we talk it becomes clear that it is a combination of two things. First, not wanting to be bossed around and told what to do by foreign bureaucrats. Second, that with aid dependency comes a loss of dignity, damage to entrepreneurship, and a decrease in innovation: all factors critical to any society’s long-term economic success.

After Rwanda my trip continues to Kenya and I manage to squeeze in a trip to Kibera, a suburb of Nairobi. With 1m people crammed into approximately 2.5 sq km (roughly 75 per cent the size of New York’s Central Park), it is frequently described as “the largest slum in Africa”, and certainly there is sewage and garbage everywhere I look. It occurs to me that Kibera provides a test case for the effectiveness of aid. Here, aid intervention could be measured and judged on its ability to change millions of lives.

Surely just a small portion of the billions of dollars available to the Gates Foundation could raise living standards and eradicate the disease burden in this area in one fell swoop?

Instead, as I walk through the mayhem that is Kibera, I am reminded once again about some of the many absurdities involved in aid.

Kenya has one of the highest ratios of development workers per capita, and, with the headquarters of the United Nations’ agency for human settlements located just hundreds of metres away from where I am walking, it seems painfully ironic that Kibera’s population has been growing since 1918.

My question to those who champion aid as a universal panacea? Why not just try to sort out Kibera and the lives of its inhabitants?

I am not holding my breath.

Dambisa Moyo is the author of ‘Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How there is Another Way for Africa’ (Penguin £14.99) www.dambisamoyo.com

DEAD
AID

Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa
Dambisa Moyo
In the past fifty years, more than $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Has this assistance improved the lives of Africans? No. In fact, across the continent, the recipients of this aid are not better off as a result of it, but worse—much worse.

In Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo describes the state of postwar development policy in Africa today and unflinchingly confronts one of the greatest myths of our time: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth.

In fact, poverty levels continue to escalate and growth rates have steadily declined—and millions continue to suffer. Provocatively drawing a sharp contrast between African countries that have rejected the aid route and prospered and others that have become aid-dependent and seen poverty increase, Moyo illuminates the way in which overreliance on aid has trapped developing nations in a vicious circle of aid dependency, corruption, market distortion, and further poverty, leaving them with nothing but the “need” for more aid.

Debunking the current model of international aid promoted by both Hollywood celebrities and policy makers, Moyo offers a bold new road map for financing development of the world’s poorest countries that guarantees economic growth and a significant decline in poverty—without reliance on foreign aid or aid-related assistance.

Dead Aid is an unsettling yet optimistic work, a powerful challenge to the assumptions and arguments that support a profoundly misguided development policy in Africa. And it is a clarion call to a new, more hopeful vision of how to address the desperate poverty that plagues millions.

Dambisa Moyo was born and raised in Zambia, Southern Africa. She completed a PhD in Economics at Oxford University and holds a Masters from Harvard University. She completed a Bachelors degree in Chemistry and MBA in Finance at the American University in Washington D.C..

She worked at Goldman Sachs for 8 years in the debt capital markets, hedge fund coverage and in global macroeconomics teams. Previously she worked at the World Bank in Washington D.C.. Dambisa was recently nominated to the Board of Lundin Petroleum – a global independent oil and gas exploration and production company.
  
Dambisa is a member of Cambridge University’s Centre for International Business and Management (CIBAM), and the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). Dambisa is also a Patron for Absolute Return for Kids (ARK), a hedge fund supported children’s charity, and serves on the Board of the Lundin for Africa Foundation, which pledged US$100 million towards microfinance initiatives.
Dambisa argues for more innovative ways for Africa to finance development including trade with China, accessing the capital markets, and microfinance.

Dambisa has also been offered a contract for another book, entitled How the West Was Lost, scheduled for publication with Penguin and Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2010. This book examines the policy errors made in the US and other Western economies which culminated in the 2008 financial crisis. And discusses why financial and economic experts missed the signs of the credit crunch. It also explores the policy decisions that have placed the emerging world- China, Russia and the Middle East, in pole position to become the dominant economic players in the 21st century.
 

Early Praise
Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General
  Dambisa Moyo makes a compelling case for a new approach in Africa. Her message is that “Africa’s time is now”. It is time for Africans to assume full control over their economic and political destiny. Africans should grasp the many means and opportunities available to them for improving the quality of life.

Dambisa is hard – perhaps too hard – on the role of aid. But her central point is indisputable. The determination of Africans, and genuine partnership between Africa and the rest of the world, is the basis for growth and development.   

Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine
  The widsom contained here-if absorbed by African and global policymakers-will turn this chronically-depressed continent into an inspiring miracle of dazzling economic growth.   

Foreword by Niall Ferguson

It has long seemed to me problematic, and even a little embarrassing, that so much of the public debate about Africa’s economic problems should be conducted by non-African white men. From the economists (Paul Collier, William Easterly, Jeffrey Sachs) to the rock stars (Bono, Bob Geldof), the African discussion has been colonized as surely as the African continent was a century ago. The simple fact that Dead Aid is the work of an African black woman is the least of the reasons why you should read it. But it is a good reason nonetheless.

Born and educated in Zambia, Dambisa Moyo also brings to her subject a rare combination of academic expertise and “real world” experience. Her training in economics took her from the World Bank to Harvard and on to Oxford, where she obtained her doctorate. Since leaving the academy, she has spent eight highly successful years at Goldman Sachs, most recently as Global Economist and strategist. It is quite a resumé.
…

To read more, order the book today.

 

Malta MEP’s – Run up to EU Parliamentary Elections 2009 -

Soon we will get the political parties pestering us again. The TV stations private, political and national will be awash with brain washing us with cheap propaganda and the usual mudslinging on petty issues with no serious debates on real issues that the Maltese public demands answers for.
They will all show us how our beloved Political Parties, especially the Nationalist and Labour Parties will be presenting us with the crème del a crème of the most hard working elements for the benefit of Malta and the Maltese. I do not think that the Maltese Public is mature enough to know the Political cunningness, lies and Political scams that are used to hypnotize and manipulate the public to vote for the, mostly coming from either a PN or a PL camps, all other parties are normally marginalized from access to public exposure.
Let’s for a minute review the last election.
1. Our now Prime Minister Lied to the public as did the PN General Secretary about the Jeffery Pulicino Orlando Mistra scandal……… and what came out of it, total silence and buried to history, what’s even worse and more scandalous is the fact that he is still serving the highest institution of the land, our parliament. This makes a mockery of the seriousness of our representatives and the highest institution of our island.
2. The first thing on taking office, behind the opposition’s back, Our Prime Minister signed the Partnership for peace (PFP), which was not discussed with the opposition especially with election won by the PN by a wafer thin majority and the above mentioned scandal.
3. The multitude of promises, including the much promised MEPA reform to rid land and construction speculators (the backbone of Nationalist financial supporters), into some kind of environmentally friendly rules and regulations that apply to all citizens of the land.
4. The much promised road construction from EU funds project to start, and has so far not even materialized, with roads deteriorating to such an extent, that a new car will become unroad worth in less than a year should VRT be carried out to EU standards.
5. Never seriously challenging EU and UN in regards of Illegal Immigration, making us the ‘yes men’, instead the PN signed a treaty with the EU that leads to Voluntary Burden sharing of these immigrants to which no EU County has yet obliged to comply with never, making us the laughing stock of other EU nations, with the latest UN report making a mockery of us for our attempts of at least trying to do the best we can with what we have.
6. The Criminalizing Law, under the racial hatred law for any national that expresses his opinion against illegal immigration (undefined and with loopholes to prevent rival political parties to present their concerns on all future consequences to the Nation without being liable for enactment of this law).
7. The exorbitant increase of energy pricing, when oil prices collapsed with no transparent auditing of the profit margin being made by the Government owned energy monopoly, which money is incentivizing inefficiencies by management of this Government run Corporation
8. The stealing of public money from the unfair Airport tax that was recently abolished due to EU’s insistence and pressure but never refunded to those having to pay this airport tax which was only imposed on those leaving the island.
9. The Government stealing from the public on the exorbitant fees imposed on those opting to buy their car from Europe or overseas, that instead of incentivizing the public to exchange their car to a modern less polluting ones, the government charged VAT on Tax, which had to be changed, again because of EU pressure, but still the Government managed to modify and twist and turn this issue by now orchestrating bigger revenue from all motorists by overhauling the licensing system that is devised to exclude commercial vehicles from paying up on pollution while private motorists carry all the burden . In essence instead of taxing the amount of fuel used paid obviously by all those that use fossil fuel in line with the polluter pays mechanism, the Government left a loop hole to leave profit margins to businessmen and Construction magnets that support the Government’s Party .
10. The PN’s New General Secretary’s leaked email sent to Government Departments to send Private information of citizens complaining to Government Departments (Data Protection act).
11. The supposedly hearse reform that caused public transport chaos last year, where eventually the Ministry in charge still did not liberalize the sector, with the cartel is still alive and kicking , while the Government even paid off the cartel’s predecessors to end the deadlock. With now an even bigger cartel where promised competition pricing is virtually non existent
12. The promised Public Transport reform, which is always an ongoing issue as sure sunshine in July, with antiquated public transport and the usual time delaying tactics and talks about talks and studies about studies, in short taking the Public for a free ride.
13. The disorganized and manipulation of public funds from Social Security Abusers, instead of closing the loop on abusers, Government is incentivizing abusers with no harsh penalties and no real checks in place to stop abuse of the system ( most abuse occurs in assistance to unmarried mothers, unemployment benefits, benefits to separated couples, marriage of convenience etc)
14. The disorganized running of the multi million euro state of the art hospital that is not living up to ageous requirements.
The Citizens have one shot to get it right and correct the situation every five years and they’d better get it right and foresee the consequences in that only shot. That is their vote. Voting wisely and voting for the love of your Country is paramount, as that is the only true place that you can rely on for your education, health, employment, Law and order and raising one’s family. If your representatives betray these values, not only will one’s Country be destroyed, you would have participated in its destruction and extinction. True Politicians resign when not capable of living up to the citizens expectations not remain in office forhe 2008 financial crisis. And discusses why financial and economic experts missed the signs of the credit crunch. It also explores the policy decisions that have placed the emerging world- China, Russia and the Middle East, in pole position to become the dominant economic players in the 21st century.
 

Early Praise
Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General
  Dambisa Moyo makes a compelling case for a new approach in Africa. Her message is that “Africa’s time is now”. It is time for Africans to assume full control over their economic and political destiny. Africans should grasp the many means and opportunities available to them for improving the quality of life.

Dambisa is hard – perhaps too hard – on the role of aid. But her central point is indisputable. The determination of Africans, and genuine partnership between Africa and the rest of the world, is the basis for growth and development.   

Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine
  The widsom contained here-if absorbed by African and global policymakers-will turn this chronically-depressed continent into an inspiring miracle of dazzling economic growth.   

Foreword by Niall Ferguson

It has long seemed to me problematic, and even a little embarrassing, that so much of the public debate about Africa’s economic problems should be conducted by non-African white men. From the economists (Paul Collier, William Easterly, Jeffrey Sachs) to the rock stars (Bono, Bob Geldof), the African discussion has been colonized as surely as the African continent was a century ago. The simple fact that Dead Aid is the work of an African black woman is the least of the reasons why you should read it. But it is a good reason nonetheless.

Born and educated in Zambia, Dambisa Moyo also brings to her subject a rare combination of academic expertise and “real world” experience. Her training in economics took her from the World Bank to Harvard and on to Oxford, where she obtained her doctorate. Since leaving the academy, she has spent eight highly successful years at Goldman Sachs, most recently as Global Economist and strategist. It is quite a resumé.
…

To read more, order the book today.

 

Malta EU’s Relationship

A lot of motorists are obviously disgruntled with the Government’s imposition of VAT taxes on EU vehicles’ imported into Malta. It seems that the Malta is a part time member of the EU. I shall explain myself, In every EU member state, there is the VAT system that is paid by the consumer on purchases made in that particular Country, and it works. If I go to any EU Country and purchase an item I pay VAT in that Country and vise-versa, those that visit Malta have to pay VAT in Malta for their purchased items. I do not reclaim VAT of any purchases made in an EU Country and repay the Maltese Government VAT as other members of the EU Community also cannot reclaim VAT from Malta to repay VAT in their Country. That is what the EU is all about, freedom of movement of people , money and investment in any EU state. Now here is where the Maltese Government decided to be a part time EU member state, car dealers and car importers in Malta are nothing short of thieves, that sell their cars for an exorbitant amount of money, most of the time for un-road worthy old cars which are not fuel efficient or environmentally friendly cars, new car are no better, as the cars they sell are no match for the same model sold in Europe, in Malta everything seems to be an optional extra, not to mention that no special deals are given to the Maltese buyers like they do in most EU countries, where it is not uncommon to find dealers selling at 0% interest. So a lot of Maltese found a simple more viable option, go to the UK or other EU member state and purchase their car from there. Obviously, the Government in Malta wants to profit from this so Malta charges VAT on already VAT’ed cars. It does not matter that it is against EU policies, as those in Brussels are so busy in a coma, that by the time they realize what the Maltese Government is illegally doing to consumers, the Maltese Government would have racked in millions of Euros from consumers, and all he has to do is find another scam of how to manipulate the EU system. You see all the men in Government are interested in is Euros, free Euros from Europe and sucking dry the Maltese consumers and businesses out of their money. When all EU car manufacturers are struggling to come up with schemes to keep the industry alive and saving employment within Europe, here comes the Maltese Government and denies the Maltese consumer from buying a European made brand new car or second hand environmentally friendlier car by imposing these exorbitant fees, taxes, tariffs or whatever other money scavenging scheme that the Maltese Government want to call it. But than the Government want to be renowned for environmentally friendly initiatives. Who do you think you are kidding Mr Gonzi. Here is what I think. The Maltese Government is bankrupt, just like most of the EU banking institutions. What they were valuing was only on paper, but not real money, and the Maltese Government monetary projections are just the same as those European failed institutions, and I bet my bottom dollar that if Malta’s finances had to be well and truly investigated they would arrive at my conclusion. Malta is bankrupt, the Government has mismanaged the country and is trying to resort to illegality and rip offs to try and get the country out of the red. Democracy, where ? Malta, not even plain good old justice. The PN has failed miserably, and not just in finance but in every field, be it the health system, were millions were spent on a state of the art hospital which is not capable of serving its purpose with long waiting lists for simple operations, to the over supplied housing market with artificially inflated prices were supply greatly exceeds demand, to the failed education system where there is an over abundance of illiteracy let alone proper facilities, to the long time and back log of court cases to satisfy justice being done, to the worst road infrastructure on earth, where roads are a life threatening risk to users, to greedy politicians that are in it for gain through corrupt practices and a thousand other issues that qualifies Malta as a third world Country rather than an EU state. No wonder the islands are being filled with African illegal immigrants, they will surely feel at home here.

 

Sunday, 8th March 2009

VAT refunds on car registration (2)

J. Sammut, VAT Commissioner, Birkirkara

I refer to Caroline Muscat’s report ‘Getting a car from the UK? You may pay VAT twice’ (The Sunday Times, March 1).

VAT on new means of transport is paid in the place of destination (where the car is registered). If a person incurs VAT in the UK and then decides to transfer and register the car in Malta while it is still considered as a new means of transport, the person will incur VAT in Malta but can claim back the VAT incurred in the UK under conditions established by Directive 2006/112/EC. In such a case an application is to be made to the UK tax authorities who are responsible for this refund.

On the other hand, one who incurs VAT in Malta on a car which is transferred to and registered in another member state while still considered a new means of transport incurs VAT in the other member state.

However, one may claim a refund of the Maltese VAT under the conditions of the above-mentioned directive.

May I point out that information regarding VAT on new means of transport may be found in a leaflet published by the VAT Department in 2004 entitled ‘New Means of Transport and Excise goods’ which may be obtained either from the VAT Department, Birkirkara, or downloaded from the VAT Department’s website at: http://vat.gov.mt/docs/ica_of_new_means_of_transport_and_excise_goods.pdf