[WATCH] MPs’ undeclared bank accounts ‘shameful but not a surprise’

MaltaToday vox-pop Swiss bank and MP's

A vox pop carried out at the University of Malta revealed that the majority of respondents were not shocked by revelations that former ministers and MP’s had been reported to own undeclared cash at HSBC Geneva.  Only two respondents said they had been shocked by the news, while one respondent expressed her disappointment at the situation.

All respondents agreed that ministers and MPs have a responsibility to act respectfully to their people and that they should behave in an exemplary manner rather than be corrupt. One respondent said it was a “pity that politicians and businessmen of such high repute would resort to such base actions.”

Another respondent insisted that ministers should retain the trust of their people but that cases of corruption had become all too common and that there were much more serious issues troubling society at the moment.

In less than 24 hours, PN leader Simon Busuttil suspended two former Nationalist ministers from his party after it emerged that they held Swiss bank accounts. Both Michael Falzon, a member of the PN executive, and Zammit, said that there position has already been reguralised.

Former resources and infrastructure minister Ninu Zammit was suspended with immediate effect from the party over reports that he held undeclared cash in at HSBC Geneva on Sunday, while former environment and education minister Michael Falzon has publicly admitted to holding an account containing some €465,000 (Lm200,000) at HSBC private bank in Geneva, Switzerland, after a journalist contacted him on the matter.

“I had no problem in confirming that this information was correct,” Falzon, today a political columnist and a member of the government’s oil procurement committee, said. He has now withdrawn from both this position and his role in the Nationalist Party executive committee.

In a statement, Zammit confirmed to having held an account at HSBC Geneva, and insisted that the cash has since been repatriated to Malta through the government's amnesty scheme in 2014.

“During the latter years of the 1970s I started depositing money generated through my profession and my business in the property market. These deposits were eventually transferred in an account at HSBC Geneve,” Zammit said in a statement.

Zammit also underlined that he did not deposit any other monies since, and insisted that his tax returns are all “in order and in line with the law.”

Swiss bank account holders have been the focus on intense media investigation since a leaked clients’ list of Geneva’s HSBC Banque Privee that was given to French police revealed over €600 million Maltese cash stashed at the Swiss bank.

“My position remains clear, People in public office or in political positions - whoever they may be - must come clean on Swissleaks and carry their responsibility at law,” opposition leader Simon Busuttil said on Sunday.

“Any person on these lists who has or had any official connection with the Nationalist Party should consider himself suspended immediately from the party.”

In 2013 in the run-up to the general election, former PN minister Austin Gatt had declared that he holds a Swiss bank account after he inherited it from his late parents. Gatt had also stated that he had not made any deposits in it, and also distanced himself from being connected “with any criminal activity, particularly the ongoing Enemalta investigation” into the oil procurement scandal.