PN treasurer suggests he was unaware of Silvio Debono’s donations

The Nationalist Party’s treasurer Alex Perici Calascione has declared he did not meet Silvio Debono or Arthur Gauci, chairman and CEO of the DB Group, suggesting he was unaware that the hotel group was a party donor.

The claim was made on TVM’s Dissett, which dealt with news that the DB Group, which recently benefited from a controversial €60 million concession to develop the former Institute of Tourism Studies into a Hard Rock Hotel, had been asked to pay the salaries of the PN’s CEO and secretary-general.

“I am responsible for the PN’s accounts – the salaries of Medialink are paid out of that company,” Perici Calascione said, referring to an over €77,000 contribution from the DB Group to the PN’s commercial arm for the payment executives’ salaries.

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has admitted meeting Silvio Debono a number of times after becoming party leader, most recently just a few weeks ago.

The party is now fighting claims that DB Group advanced its donation to the PN’s media company Media.Link, under the guise of commercial services that may have not been rendered.

“The PN has specified the total amounts directly granted as a donation, while the other amount represents the commercial relationship with Media.Link… no company issues these kind of commercial details,” Perici Calascione told TVM head of news Reno Bugeja, who jabbed the party treasurer on using the confidentiality of the party’s commercial arrangements, as a defence.

Under Maltese party financing rules, the commercial arms of political parties are not required to disclose their financial affairs. But the DB Group insists that its donation to Media.Link was not backed up by commercial services, and that it has the invoices to prove it.

Perici Calascione was clear that the PN had abided by party financing rules but specified he as not Media.Link’s accountant. “We have not contested the amounts donated but the nature of how they were constituted… we are in line with the law, and gave a breakdown of the party’s donations as required by the Electoral Commission, and they don’t have to include money paid to commercial companies.”

But Perici Calascione resisted from stating his position on whether the PN should prove DB Group’s allegations to the contrary.

“We should not be in position where we provide the proof to contradict the one making the allegation… where would that stop? The accuser should prove his allegation.”

News of the DB Group’s donations were made public after PN leader Simon Busuttil upped the ante in his criticism of the group’s St George’s Bay concession on Sunday, when earlier that day MaltaToday reported that PN deputy leader Mario de Marco would relinquish a legal brief he had with the company. De Marco had been personally involved in part of the DB Group negotiations with the government.

That Sunday afternoon, after Busuttil called for an inquiry into the concession by the Auditor General, the DB Group’s CEO Arthur Gauci reacted to the PN leader’s comments on the “dirty deal” by demanding the company’s donations back, in a personal SMS to Busuttil. When Busuttil publicised the SMS, the company issued a press statement disclosing it had been specifically asked to cover the salaries of PN secretary-general Rosette Thake and CEO Brian St John.

The Labour Party’s deputy leader for party affairs, Chris Cardona, defended his own party for not having even yet registered with the Electoral Commission, in defiance of the party financing rules that Labour itself enacted.

“We will submit our receipts and account balances once the party’s General Conference changes party clauses on financing rules. Once we come into line with party financing rules, we will submit our backdated receipts and declarations to the Electoral Commission.”

But Alternattiva Demokratika deputy chairperson Carmel Cacopardo rubbished Cardona’s last comment, saying the Labour Party was well aware of the content of the party financing rules and should have enacted its own internal party changes back in June 2016.