Debono hits out at finance minister over Borg Hedley saga

Nationalist MP Franco Debono issued a scathing retort to PN deputy leadership candidate Tonio Fenech, saying the finance minister should have resigned back when his private secretary was found to have collected bribes for administrative favours to the JPM Bros. construction firm. He insisted that he has "a right not to believe that Fenech was unaware of what was going on."

Reacting to statements by Fenech on TVAM earlier today, in which the minister reiterated his belief that reconciliation with Debono - who is banned from the party ticket - was not on the cards, Debono took Fenech to task on the Noel Borg Hedley saga.

"What the PN needs now, more than a united team, is a 'clean' team, and I hope Fenech understands me," Debono said, referring to the minister's role in the case that led to the conviction of Borg Hedley.

Borg Hedley, 67, a former private secretary to Fenech, had admitted to MaltaToday in 2011 that he would receive tips from contractors Jeffrey and Peter Montebello for Fenech's political campaign, as well as to reward him for intervening with the Tax Department to waive fines they owed on the sale of under-declared properties.

Fenech has always denied being unaware of the alleged bribes.

Debono has previously welcomed an attempt at reconciliation by deputy party leadership contender Simon Busuttil.

But the MP, who contacted MaltaToday to comment on Fenech's comments, lashed out at the minister:

"The attacks on me in his references to the party ban are just tied to the fact that it was somebody from my legal office who was Borg Hedley's defence lawyer. Fenech should know one thing: he should kiss Borg Hedley's feet every morning," Debono said. The Nationalist MP added that Fenech who should have been condemned by the PN executive and not MPs who did not follow the party whip.

"Fenech should stop treating the electorate and councillors like idiots. Fenech was not just responsible for his ministry, but also for his private secretariat: he should have left if his private secretary was collecting those type of donations, even if he wasn't aware of the bribes.

"Fenech should know that we're all God's creatures, and that the Holy Virgin does not just cry for him," Debono said in a barb addressed at Fenech's invocation of the Virgin Mary during a parliamentary debate on divorce.

"Tonio Fenech is not only responsible for every civil servant serving in his ministry but even more so responsible for what happens in his ministry. Dumping Borg Hedley does not exonerate Tonio Fenech," Debono said. 

The MP also noted that "Politically he [Fenech] is responsible for whatever happened in his ministry, especially if it involved people who were refurbishing his private residence. Personally I have every right not to believe that he was not aware of what was going on. If he did not know he should have resigned anyway."

Fenech has categorically denied any knowledge of or connection to the Borg Hedley case, which continues to be a thorny matter for the minister: earlier today on TVAM he was questioned about his political baggage.

As it happens, JPM Bros. were the same contractors Fenech hired to carry out renovation works on his house in Balzan. The job ended in controversy after subcontractor Charles Magro alleged that one of the Montebello brothers had told him they were doing the renovation on the minister's residence as "a favour" so that the minister brokers the sale of the Jerma Hotel to two business magnates.

The magnates turned out to be Joe Gasan and George Fenech, the men with whom Fenech travelled to watch an Arsenal match aboard George Fenech's private jet - an episode that in the first place, had been revealed by Franco Debono himself during an internal PN meeting at Villa Francia.

Fenech has stood by his record of political integrity, when he told the TVM breakfast show TVAM today that he would "leave politics" if any truth emerges from allegations that works carried out in his private residence by JPM Brothers were done to curry favour with him.

"I have already sued Labour for defamation on the reports concerning my house: the person who created this story is a Labour activist, a GWU employee, and his lawyer if Toni Abela (PL deputy leader)... if there is a smidgen of truth in what was said, not only do I deserve not to be PN deputy leader, or finance minister... I would leave politics."