Updated | Property Division turns to MaltaPost for answers on alleged data protection breach

The Nationalist Party has called for action to be taken in order to investigate alleged abuse of power after bills sent out by the Government Property Division allegedly included Labour Party propaganda material.

PN MPs Jason Azzopardi, Ryan Callus and Clyde Puli called on the Data Protection Commission to investigate how PL flyers were inserted in envelopes from the Government Property Department. The flyer reportedly asked the tenants to give a monetary donation to the Labour Party.

But in a reaction, the parliamentary secretariat for planning insisted that the Opposition’s allegations could not be sustained and were “unbelievable”.

According to the parliamentary secretariat, the Government Property Division has, for the past years, adopted a system whereby a soft copy of the list of pending payments is sent to MaltaPost. On its part, MaltaPost prints the bills, folds them, places them in envelopes and mails them.

The secretariat said that at no point were additional letters sent to MaltaPost to be included in the GPD bills.

MaltaPost has now been asked to verify the allegations raised by the Opposition.

“Labour is abusing its power and using government departments to promote the PL," the PN said in a statement. “It also means that the Labour Party is being given access to personal information, in violation of data protection laws. This translates to the Labour Party and the government becoming one and the same."

The Opposition compared the situation to “a corrupt totalitarian regime”.

The GPD falls under the remit of parliamentary secretary Deborah Schembri, whose office is within the Office of the Prime Minister. On this note, the PN also called on Schembri to shoulder responsibility, while reiterating its accusations that Schembri shirked her responsibility in the recent controversy regarding alleged conflict of interest surrounding the Paceville masterplan.

The PN called on the Data Protection Commissioner to investigate the case in order to establish if any data protection laws were broken.