Former MFCC chairman never signed Nazzarenu Vassallo declaration

A denial by PN donor Nazzareno Vassallo's firm MFCC Ltd that the company had awarded €350,000 in donations to the Nationalists' electoral campaign, was not signed by the company's own chairman Silvio Scerri, MaltaToday has learnt.

The development comes a week after MFCC's directors and shareholders issued a signed denial of reports by this newspaper that over €1 million in services to the PN had been waived by the operators of the Ta' Qali exhibition centre had been, apart from earmarking €350,000 in assistance to the PN's electoral campaign.

It now transpires that Silvio Scerri, who occupied the post of chairman of MFCC Ltd up until 2008, never signed the declaration that rebutted the news report.

On his part, MFCC director Reuben Caruana - who owns 35% of the company - changed tack last Sunday after he was first locked out of the MFCC's Ta' Qali by Vassallo, amending his version of the facts as presented to this newspaper.

The PN has filed a libel suit against MaltaToday for its report that Vassallo's company was bankrolling its electoral campaign. Managing editor Saviour Balzan has called on PN secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier to ask the courts that the libel suit is heard with urgency, in a bid to expedite the court hearing. "We have nothing to fear because we have evidence to substantiate our claims," Balzan said in a comment.

Asked by MaltaToday to provide the invoices of works provided by MFCC to the party, Paul Borg Olivier dodged the question and simply referred to the libel action he had instituted against this newspaper.

On TVM this week, Labour MP Chris Cardona confronted PN parliamentarian Beppe Fenech Adami and asked him to provide invoices for the work MFCC had carried out for the Independence celebrations since 2008. Cardona claimed that every year the bill would amount to around €160,000.