Db Group donations to PN tantamount to fraud, Muscat insists

The invoices issued by the Nationalist Party's commercial arm for donations given by the db group constituted "fraud" as no service was rendered, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat claimed today.

Speaking on One Radio, the prime minister took lambasted the Opposition over the donations it received from db Group, the owners of the Seabank hotel who will be developing a €300 million Hard Rock Hotel on the site of the Institute of Tourism Studies, and said the PN's refusal to publish invoices of the transactions sought to cover the party's tracks.

Muscat's comments were made after the db Group claimed it had been asked for money to cover the monthly salaries PN secretary-general Rosette Thake and CEO Brian St John. The PN refuted the claims, claiming that it had only received €3,500 as donations, while €70,800 were given to Media.Link, the party's media company, as part of a commercial transaction. The hotel chain has denied, instead insisting that the money was donated to cover the salaries of the PN officials.

Moreover, the Nationalist Party has since resisted calls from the Labour Party to publish a copy of the invoices, arguing that the commercial relationship should remain private.

Taking Busuttil to task, the prime minister said the PN leader's refusal to publish these invoices on the basis of "commercial sensitivity" underscored the party's hypocrisy.

“A few weeks ago, we were the first government to publish all major contracts,” said Muscat. “We removed commercially sensitive information about Enemalta and other companies.”

He said that while the PN had criticised the government for redacting the contracts, it was now refusing to publish an invoice.

“Busuttil is full of transparency when he is criticizing the government, but he is then refusing to publish a contract because it is commercially sensitive.  Not only is it incredible as an answer, but it shows the PN's hypocrisy and how fake the party is,” he added.

Quoting a report by Labour newspaper Kullhadd, Muscat said the amount of money the Nationalist Party had received from the db Group is as high as €500,000. According to the report, citing sources with the PN, claims the party had received over €500,000 in donations over the course of “a few years.”

Muscat said that it was also hypocritical of Busuttil to say that he would not be returning the money because the party had done nothing illegal and returning the money would make it seem as if the party had done something wrong.

“Last week he wasn’t talking about it being illegal. He was talking about it being dirty money he did not want,” said Muscat, pointing out that in his remaks during the week, Busuttil never referred to the legality of the transaction, but about the money being dirty. 

In addition to this, the Prime Minister said that Busuttil is wrong in claiming that the PN is not in breach of party financing laws because the money was transferred to the Media.link. Reading out the article of the law which refers to enterprises owned by the parties, Muscat accused Busuttil of being “fake” and “going against the facts.”

Quotas on female MPs

Turning to gender equality in the House of Representatives, Muscat said that he believed it was time for the country to discussion the introduction of quotas.

“Women do not have enough of a voice in our parliament,” said Muscat, who again said that his belief is that quotas should be introduced, without reducing the number of male MPs.

“Today in the Labour Party, we do not need quotas. However, they were initially necessary for us to break the glass-ceiling.” Muscat said.

Azure Window

Muscat described the Azure window’s collapse into the sea this week as a tragedy for Malta and argued that the government issuing a call for ideas for a project that will ensure that the site’s beauty is not forgotten.

“We capitalised on the great deal of international attention we were getting and we announced that we would be welcoming ideas,” said Muscat. “The fact that we acted so quickly and creatively has resulted in a lot of interest being shown.”

Marsa Power Station

“Today the people of Marsa, the South, and the whole of Malta can rest assured that the Marsa power station is out of the equation,” said Muscat. It’s closure, he said, represented the government keep a promise to the nation which the PN had made in the 1980s.

Muscat said that while the power station had already been decommissioned, it had not been disconnected from the grid because it was required as a back-up to the interconnector, which he said was necessary, especially given recent power-cuts resulting from damage to the interconnector between Malta and Sicily.

“We cannot only depend on a wire to another country,” said Muscat, who rubbished the Opposition’s claim that a connection to Sicily via interconnectors is enough to satisfy Malta’s energy needs.

The Prime Minister said that following the closure of the plant, a site which had previously been associated with pollution and a state of abandonment, would not be converted to a space that contributes to the community.