[WATCH] ‘Not a loophole, but a breach of law’ – minister on PN’s Debono ‘donations’

Tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis denied that the recent controversy involving payments made by companies part-owned to hotelier Silvio Debono to the PN’s media arm exposed shortcomings and loopholes in the party financing law.

Addressing a press conference at the PL headquarters, Zammit Lewis said that the law already prohibits parties from bypassing the requirement to declare their donations by having donors pass on money to parties via companies in which the party is a majority shareholder.

The law – which passed unanimously in 2015 - states that parties must publish all donations exceeding €7,000 and forbids them from accepting over €25,000 annually in donations from a single source.

While the law has no bearing on commercial relationships between businesses and party-owned companies, Zammit Lewis said that the law places the burden of proof on political parties to provide proof that such a commercial relationship had existed.

“The law doesn’t allow parties to use their companies as smokescreens, and if they cannot prove that a commercial relationship took place then it counts as a donation,” he said. “The law is fine as it is, the issue is whether people are sticking to the spirit of it.” 

MaltaToday revealed on Sunday that Media.Link received around €560,000 since 2013 from two catering companies part-owned by Debono – the airline catering company Sky Gourmet and Malta Healthcare Caterers, which provide catering to homes for the elderly and hospitals.

The money was allegedly used to cover the salaries of PN secretary general Rosette Thake and Media.Link CEO Brian St John.

Zammit Lewis challenged Opposition leader Simon Busuttil to publish the invoices that Media.Link had issued to the two companies, arguing that neither of them have any need to advertise themselves. Moreover, an analysis carried out by Labour newspaper Kullhadd on 11,000 pages of the PN’s newspapers could not reveal a single advert of either these companies.

He also accused Busuttil of lying, after he told the press last week that MediaLink had not received over €500,000 from companies part-owned by Debono and that the money had been used on adverts.

“[PN deputy leader] Mario de Marco himself referred to the payments as donations, while [PN treasurer] Alex Perici Calscione said that he had not been informed about them,” Zammit Lewis. “From whichever angle you look at it, it is clear that Busuttil broke the party financing law.”

The press conference at the PL’s Mile End headquarters was also addressed by Qormi mayor and PL election candidate Rosianne Cutajar, who said that the case exposed Busuttil as “false” and as a liar.

“The PN refused to introduce a party financing law in the 25 years in which they were in government. Since it was introduced, they have come up with the Cedoli scheme and now this ‘PagiPN’ scheme.”