PN fails to submit accounts, donation report yet again

Political parties are obliged to file their statement of accounts and donation reports with the Electoral Commission every year. These documents are then published on the commission’s website after vetting. 

Neither the PN’s donation report, nor its statement of accounts are available for 2024. Indeed, the last time the PN published its donation report was in 2021 and the last statement of accounts goes back to 2020. The party has been in breach of the law ever since. 

A PN spokesperson reiterated what the party has been saying for months, when asked by MaltaToday whether the accounts and donation reports will be published: “These are presently being worked on and will be submitted once completed.” No timeline for completion was given. 

Meanwhile, the Labour Party has so far published its donation report for 2024 but still has to file the statement of accounts. The PL has always published both reports in previous years. 

The donation report for 2024, shows that the PL received €1.4 million in donations from 30,724 donors. 

The party only reported one donation exceeding €7,000, which requires publication of the donor’s name. This was a €10,000 donation made by Iracil Ltd, a company owned by John Licari, that has its registered office in Bormla. 

The PL received €615,000 in donations, each not exceeding €500, from 30,371 donors between May and December 2024. There is no obligation to keep a record of names for such donations. 

The report also shows that the PL received €820,000 in donations, each being more than €500 but not exceeding €7,000, from 352 donors. The party is obliged to keep a record of who is making donations within this range but is not obliged to publish their names. 

Overall, the PL received €1.4 million last year from almost 31,000 donors. 

A spokesperson for the PL told MaltaToday that the statement of accounts for 2024 will be submitted later this year after asking the Electoral Commission for an extension. 

“Currently the Labour Party is holding the annual general meetings of the local committees, after the approval of a number of amendments to the Labour Party statute during this month’s Extraordinary General Meeting,” the spokesperson said, adding that after these conclude the accounts can be consolidated. 

The PL spokesperson added that the party party has always published and will continue to publish its statement of accounts with the Electoral Commission, “unlike the Nationalist Party which has been failing to do so since 2021”.  

She said that the PL has just approved the change of its external auditors—Grant Thornton have been appointed—two weeks ago during the EGM. The spokesperson added: “The party will remain committed to presenting every year, as required by law, its financial accounts to the Electoral Commission. Ironically, the Labour Party found new auditors in just one week, whereas the Nationalist Party has been blaming its auditor, if it has found one, for the PN’s unpublished accounts.” 

The other available donation reports on the Electoral Commission’s website are those of the minor parties ABBA, Partit Popolari and Volt. 

Partit Popolari, a traditionalist rightist party, received €2,000 from 65 donors throughout 2024. ABBA, a Christian conservative party, collected €1,920 in donations from 10 donors, while Volt, a leftist liberal party, received €1,060 from nine donors. 

ADPD has not yet filed its donation report for 2024. 

The party financing law 

The law regulating political party financing was enacted in 2016 and it makes it illegal for parties to receive donations of €25,000 from the same source in one calendar year. 

The parties are obliged to list any donations they would have refused and the reasons why. 

Any donations from the same source, surpassing the €7,000 mark will have to be recorded and the identity divulged publicly. 

Donations less than €50 collected during a manifestation shall not be recorded by the parties. 

Parties are under no obligation to record donations up to €500, unless donations from the same source within the same calendar year exceed the cap. 

However, the parties are obliged to record the identity of a donor making a contribution of between €500 and €7,000 but have no obligation to publish the name.