Parties to publish electoral campaign accounts ‘at a later stage’

Despite promising to publish the accounts and expenses incurred during the electoral campaign, both Labour and the PN insisted that these will not be published for the time being.

In the midst of the electoral campaign, both parties committed themselves to publishing the list of donations and how these were spent, however the parties failed to answer to specific questions sent by this newspaper.

While the PN failed to answer the questions sent via email, the Labour Party's reply said that the party would be publishing its accounts during the next General Conference, expected to be held at the end of April.

A PN spokesperson told MaltaToday that the accounts would be published at a later date without specifying when.

In its reply, Labour said that it would not only publish a balance sheet for the last electoral campaign, but will also publish its accounts covering the whole working year.

"During the electoral campaign, the Labour Party has pledged to introduce a Party Financing Bill in order to regulate the financial situations of the political parties, and regulate the way they receive or accept donations and other types of income. Prime Minister and Labour Leader Joseph Muscat has declared, more than once, that this bill (Party Financing) together with a Whistleblower's Act and another law removing prescription over politicians, will be among the first measures of a new government," the party said.

A Labour spokesperson pointed out that it is the only party in Malta which publishes its accounts and will do the same during this year's General Conference.

At the beginning of electoral campaign, the PN leader Lawrence Gonzi had said that the party would publish details of the donations received during the electoral campaign and how these funds were used.

His comments had come hot on the heels of MaltaToday's report that PN donor and construction magnate Nazzareno Vassallo's company MFCC Ltd had earmarked a total of €350,000 for services to the PN, after having written off some €1 million in debt by the party.

Both the Nationalist Party and the MFCC denied the reports, with the Nationalist Party going as far as to say that it would sue MaltaToday for libel.

While the PN denied the report, the party hinted that the money could have formed part of 'barter agreements' between the party and the company.

PN deputy leader Simon Busuttil had also confirmed that he PN would publish the accounts of how it collected the funds and how it spent them in its electoral campaign, but noted that the party did not have authorisation to publish the names of the donors.

The party financing bill, which was never discussed in parliament during the previous legislature, despite former Natiionalist MP Franco Debono's insistence, once again hit the headlines during the electoral campaign, with both major parties taking a dig at each other's links to big businesses.

While Labour harangued the PN for its links to Vassallo, Gonzi had shed doubts on what he described as Labour's "mysterious source of financing" which bankrolled their impressive - but expensive - campaign.