PN approached Sandro Chetcuti to ‘make up’

A meeting between PN secretary-general Chris Said and the president of the Malta Developers' Association, Sandro Chetcuti, was cancelled at the last minute after Chetcuti made it clear that he was taking up a voluntary role inside Labour as an activist.

The meeting, fixed back in December 2013, was revealed in a TV confrontation between Said and Labour deputy leader for party affairs Toni Abela, on TVM's Dissett on the discussion of party financing.

But after the meeting with Chetcuti was cancelled by Said, the PN organ Il-Mument set much store in a front-page splash outing Chetcuti as a Labour volunteer who was meeting building contractors at the Labour HQ.

Chetcuti has confirmed with MaltaToday that he was approached to meet Said, but after indicating that he was taking up a voluntary role with Labour, was told that the meeting had been cancelled.

MaltaToday revealed that Chetcuti, who had been a regular donor for both Labour and the Nationalist Party in the past, had decided to lobby for the Labour Party in an alleged fund-raising role. Chetcuti had also shown interest to stand as a PL candidate.

Chetcuti's frankness with the new PN secretary-general came after the harrowing experience of having been accused of the attempted murder of former GRTU director general and PN candidate Vince Farrugia in 2011, before evidence of the inflated charges saw the accusation being downgraded to grievous bodily harm.

Chetcuti was acquitted of the original charge of attempted murder but found guilty of causing Farrugia slight injuries and of harassing and threatening Farrugia, and sentenced to one month's imprisonment, suspended for one year.

Farrugia's links with Labour - the original cause for his altercation with Farrugia was an SMS to Joseph Muscat which he erroneously sent to Farrugia - became media fodder for the Nationalist Party.

During last Thursday's Dissett, while discussing the White Paper on party financing, Said argued that amongst other shortcomings, the fact that Chetcuti was occupying an office at the Labour headquarters put paid to Labour's transparency pledge.

"On one hand, the Labour Party pledges transparency. On the other, the government has gifted Australia Hall to the PL, granted a contract to Henley & Partners, and then there's the issue of the MDA president..." the PN secretary-general said.

"Labour is saying Chetcuti is just a volunteer in the party but at the same time he is using an office within the party to meet with several developers," Said said.

But Abela retorted that before the PN took Chetcuti to task, Chris Said had tried to "enrol" Sandro Chetcuti within the PN.

"Chris Said invited Sandro Chetcuti to a meeting and asked him to join the Nationalist Party but Chetcuti told him that he felt more comfortable working within the Labour Party. Notwithstanding this, Chris Said asked Sandro Chetcuti to join and work within the PN," Abela argued.

Trading blows, Chris Said dubbed Abela's comments as a "complete lie", saying he had only met Chetcuti to have contact with the developers' lobby.

"I only met Sandro Chetcuti due to his capacity within the MDA and to have contact with the developers' lobby. It is absurd for Toni Abela to say that I had asked Sandro Chetcuti to join the PN," Said insisted - although Abela replied that Chetcuti had only recently been elected as MDA president.