Update 2: Sant, Pullicino Orlando, play cat and mouse, trade new charges

Labour leader Alfred Sant this afternoon accused Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando of 'corruption' over a development permit granted by Mepa at Mistra, but the Nationalist MP quickly denied the charges.

The accusation was made at a hastily called press conference in Mistra.

Dr Sant said that Mepa had granted an outline permit for a discoteque in Mistra which could take 4,000 people and then extended that to 8,000 people. He said the facility would be built on land belonging to Dr Pullicino Orlando outside the development zone. Previous applications for much smaller developments had been refused. Dr Sant said he was sure money had changed hands over the matter.

Dr Pullicino Orlando, who had got wind that Dr Sant may say something about him, attended a press conference given by Dr Sant yesterday morning outside the Mepa offices in Floriana and this morning followed Dr Sant to Gozo, where the Labour leader gave another press conference. In both instances Dr Pullicino Orlando was not mentioned.

Dr Sant then came back to Malta and the press conference was called with barely 45 minutes notice.

He said it was only called at that time because Labour’s delegation had been in Gozo and it wanted to be sure that it would make it to the site on time. Labour, he said, only invited journalists to its press conferences.

Dr Pullicino Orlando described Dr Sant as a "coward" for not having made the accusations in his presence, when he had two opportunities to do so. He said he was was prevented from catching the same ferry back as Dr Sant by journalists and officials who kept asking him needless questions.

As he waited for the next ferry Dr Pullicino Orlando phoned journalists asking them to stay at Mistra so that he could immediately reply to Dr Sant's allegations.

Upon his arrival - when Dr Sant had already left - Dr Pullicino Orlando said he could confirm that he owned land in Mistra but it was rented out to third parties and he did not even know the details of the project which Dr Sant had spoken about. He had never met the applicant for the development permit.

Dr Pullicino Orlando said he would be filing a libel suit against Dr Sant and said that if he (Dr Sant) was convinced of his corruption claims, he should take his case to the Police Commissioner for investigation.

One News in a statement this evening denied that its journalists had delayed Dr Pullicino Orlando and said that its journalists had actually boarded the ferry on time.

In a press statement in the evening Dr Pullicino Orlando again denied the charges made against him by Dr Sant and instead accused Labour Party deputy leader Charles Mangion and Labour MP Karmenu Vella of of making false rental income declarations to the Inland Revenue Department and the Malta Financial Services Authority for several years.

The new allegations were promptly denied by by Dr Mangion and Mr Vella, who said that all income had been declared for tax purposes.

Dr Pullicino Orlando said that Mirca Properties Ltd, a company in which the Labour MP were partners, rented three apartments in Birżebbuġa to the Freeport for several years and did not declare the income. For example, in the financial statements for 1997 registered at the MFSA, Mirca Properties declared it did not do business that year when the facts showed that it had received cheques for Lm9,468 (€22,054) and these were cashed. In the same period, the company declared an expense bill of Lm5,803 (€13,517).

During this period, Dr Pullicino Orlando said, both Dr Mangion and Mr Vella were ministers and while one was now deputy leader, the other was a prominent MP. If Labour was elected both would be senior ministers in Dr Sant’s cabinet.

But when contacted after the news conference, Dr Mangion denied that Mirca Properties had made false declarations for tax purposes. He said that everything was now up to date and if there had been an auditing mistake this had been corrected.

Dr Mangion and Mr Vella reserved the right to take legal action against Dr Pullicino Orlando.