Sensational €500,000 pledge fronted by Adrian Delia will not happen – Dar tal-Providenza

A €500,000 donation from a Tunisian magnate presented to the Catholic charity Id-Dar tal-Providenza, will not be accepted after donors CATCO Group did not provide information requested for a due diligence exercise.

The donation was fronted by the former Opposition leader Adrian Delia, who presented a handsome donation of his own for the New Year’s Day fund-raiser for Id-Dar tal-Providenza, before returning with a surprise announcement.

Delia’s offer caught the organisers of the fund-raiser by surprise, when the €500,000 offer – roughly 25% of the charity’s €2 million target – could not be instantly verified.

The pledge went ahead anyway, with Delia taking the limelight during the fund-raiser as the face of the half-million donation from CATCO, whose chairman Fisal Alokla had been recently appointed chairman of Sliema Wanderers FC.

Delia credited Jeffrey Farrugia, the former footballer who this week resigned as Sliema Wanderers president, as having introduced him to the opportunity to work with the donors.

The final sum of money donated during the Festa ta’ Ġenerożità held 1 January 2021 ha now been revised down to €2,031,540.

“Following the pledge of €500,000 from CATCO Group, Id-Dar tal-Providenza signed a letter of engagement with a local advisory and audit firm to conduct a due diligence exercise.​ Id-Dar tal-Providenza was informed by the firm that the chairman of CATCO did not provide the relevant information requested from him as part of a verification process, and therefore Id-Dar tal-Providenza, while appreciating this kind gesture, is not in a position to receive the donation. The Administrative Secretary of the Archdiocese of Malta was informed about this development.

“Id-Dar tal-Providenza remains committed to providing the best services possible to its residents to support them to live their life with the dignity they deserve. We take the opportunity to thank all those who through their donations and efforts have supported Id-Dar tal-Providenza in its work.”

Originally the donation sent the €1.5 million collected up until then to a whopping €2 million, with an emotional Delia shedding tears as he beckoned others to follow suit. “This group of companies has also told me that this is not a one-off, but that it wants to create a structure in which the Dar tal-Providenza can bank on a regular donation,” Delia said, saying that the Catco chairman was following the live broadcast.