Updated | DB was invoiced by PN media company for €77,000 ‘to cover salaries’

The Nationalist Party has categorically denied hotelier Silvio Debono’s allegations that he is paying the monthly salaries of its secretary general Rosette Thake and chief executive Brian St John.

“It is not true that any party employee or official is being paid by a third party,” the PN said in a statement – some 17 hours after Debono made his stunning claim. “Thake’s salary is being paid by the PN, while St John’s salary is being paid by Media.link Communications.”

It said that the PN received €1,170,186 in donations throughout 2016 – out of which €3,500 were donated by Silvio Debono. Moreover, two companies of which Debono is a shareholder had paid MediaLink – the PN’s media arm – a sum total of €70,800.

In its statement, the PN also attached a copy of the summary of donations made to the PN throughout 2016 that it had filed with the Electoral Commissioner.

The PN sent the press a summary of the donations it received throughout 2016

It also described Opposition leader Simon Busuttil’s statement that the PN will not allow businesses to condition its actions through donations as “unprecedented in Maltese politics”.

“Everyone knows that the PN survives through donations made by people, families and businesses. Indeed, we raised the considerable sum of €266,459 during last night’s fund-raising marathon,” it said. “No donation, no matter how large, will shut the PN up or stop it from taking a position against the way public land n St George’s Bay was transferred.

“We reiterate our call on the Auditor General to investigate the land transfer...the ball is now in Joseph Muscat’s court and he must now tell us the whole truth about the deal.”

The claims were instantly contradicted by db Group CEO Arthur Gauci.

Hotelier Silvio Debono has claimed he is paying the salaries of the PN's secretary general and CEO

“It’s untrue that db passed on just €3,500, The total amount donated last year was of €70,800 and €6,500. We have the receipts to prove it.

“It’s untrue that the db Group paid Media.Link €70,800 for commercial services. The insinuation that we got back that value in adverts, is a total lie. We challenge the PN to list those commercial services rendered unto us in 2016.”

Gauci said that it was the PN’s own top officials, who said the €70,800 they asked for would go towards the salaries of the secretary-general and CEO. “On the request of these same officials, we were to be invoiced by Media.Link, as happened. In 2016, globally these invoices amounted to €70,800, exactly as we were requested for these two salaries, pertaining to the secretary-general’s and the CEO’s.”

The db Group, owner of the Seabank hotel, and which will be developing a €300 million Hard Rock Hotel on the site of the Institute of Tourism Studies, claimed on Sunday that they paid the monthly salaries of Thake and St John.

The declaration came in the wake of statements by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, who said Arthur Gauci had warned he would no longer back the party financially over statements he made bringing into question the concession granted to the group at St George’s Bay.

Gauci said that he had texted Busuttil earlier in the afternoon saying: “We are requesting an urgent meeting with you so that the party pays back what our group was asked to give all this time.”

Busuttil said during a fund-raiser for the party that he would not stand for this kind of threat.

At 7:30pm, Gauci issued a statement saying that the db Group had been “specifically asked” to cover the monthly salaries of various PN personnel, both before Busuttil’s election as leader and after. “More specifically since [Busuttil] became leader we were asked to cover the salaries of both the secretary-general and the party’s CEO. Dr Simon Busuttil is fully abreast of both the request for these funds as well as their acceptance. Requests for funds from the PN have reached us as late as yesterday,” Gauci said.

Labour Party challenges PN to publish proof

The 24 hours it took the Nationalist Party to react to claims that a private company was paying the salaries of the party’s secretary general and its CEO were more telling than the PN’s actual denial, the Labour Party said.

The PL said it took the PN 24 hours to come up with a very fake attempt at clarifying the matter.

“If it is true that the donations requested were paid in the form of a transaction between said company and the PN’s media company, the PN should immediately publish these contracts and provide evidence of the services rendered,” it said in a statement.

“It is becoming increasingly evident that Simon Busuttil is trying to hide the fact that he broke the law governing party financing, by hiding behind an excuse of a would-be contract, while not realising that even such transactions are covered by the same law.”