PN wants criminal investigation on Labour links to Yorgen Fenech promo deal

Payments have been made to settle the Nationalist Party’s VAT debts, and arrangements are in place so that these payments continue, said PN spokesperson Mark Anthony Sammut.

In response to questions on the PN’s tax shortcomings, Sammut admitted that parties should be of example when paying tax, after a Times of Malta report found that the party’s media company Media.link, together with the Labour Party’s ONE, owe more than €5 million in unpaid debt.

Sammut was speaking at a party press conference on recent allegations that a former Labour CEO communicated with Yorgen Fenech over a €200,000 deal for the company B.E.D services, which at one point operated at the same address as Labour’s ONE.

Together with PN candidate Charles Azzopardi, who is a former Labour Party mayor, the party will file a criminal complaint at the Police General Headquarters in Floriana, for an investigation on the €200,000-deal allegations.

Sammut said that the investigation ought to consider how the Labour Party is being financed, and whether the party has similar arrangements with other companies that took suspicious tenders or benefitted from government landgrabs for cheap.

The Nationalist Party had a similar financing structure in place. In 2017, it was revealed that the dB Group paid the monthly salaries of former PN secretary-general Rosette Thake and former CEO Brian St John.

On this issue, Sammut said that donations to the PN from dB Group were always carried out according to law. “When the Group tried to use those donations to silence the party, the party didn’t let itself be bought,” he said.

Political parties should be state-funded, PN argues

Sammut added that the party would be open to having a police investigation be extended to the financing of all political parties. “We have nothing to hide,” he remarked.

“Our donations are always carried out with receipts and in line with the law. Our new donation portal will allow small donations in line with the law.”

He further reiterated the party’s stance that the best party financing model would be a state-financing one, with donations prohibited in every way.

“Our system today is one where parties depend on donations […] Parties knock on doors and ask for money. This isn’t ideal in a democracy.”

Meanwhile, the Labour Party lambasted the Nationalist Party with full force, accusing the Opposition of trying to undermine the party by playing dirty tricks with the institutions.

"The Labour Party, with all its structures, will stop with all its strength this strategy designed to scare people away from helping the Labour Party," a party statement reads.

Additionally, the PL remarked that it had introduced the party financing law, and has complied with it all throughout.

"While, the Labour Party already immediately declared yesterday that it is not receiving any money from Yorgen Fenech, much less €200,000, Bernard Grech must understand how he and his party will be the ones who will have the most to answer for in the future."