Updated | 'Busuttil is failing his first transparency test' - Labour

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil was “failing his first transparency test”, according to the Labour Party.

Busuttil has come under fire from the opposite camp after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat revealed that Europa Research and Consultancy Services Ltd had enjoyed millions in contracts awarded by the previous administration.

In the following days in Parliament, several lists of contracts awarded to ERCS were published. Some of them were awarded through direct orders. In certain cases, ministers could not say whether a call for offers had been issued.

Until 2009, Busuttil was listed as a director of this consultancy firm.

He has now filed a libel suit against l-Orizzont after the GWU’s daily reported Busuttil had not declared his financial income from ERCS during his tenure as member of the European Parliament.

According to the Labour Party, Busuttil’s statements have been contradictory: “Facts and public documents show that ERCS has made over a million euros from these contracts; Busuttil says his income was less than the minimum wage. It now emerges that not even this minimum wage was declared.”

The PL insisted that Busuttil had to declare how much he and the ERCS made from these direct orders and government contracts.

“This is Simon Busuttil’s first transparency test, and he is failing miserably,” Labour insisted.

In a reaction, the Nationalist Party said Busuttil has opened two libel cases against l-Orizzont. According to the PN, l-Orizzont “pushed forward Joseph Muscat’s mud-slinging campaign”.

The PN said that the “Prime Minister’s orchestrated campaign targets the honest individuals and covers others’ dirt”.

The PN said Simon Busuttil has already published ERCS Ltd’s audited accounts.