Labour leader Joseph Muscat yesterday pledged to “clean up politics” and slammed the Finance Ministry for not acting on documents related to oil commissions it possessed since 2011.
He referred to a story in The Sunday Times which said oil trader George Farrugia, who was granted a presidential pardon in the Enemalta oil commissions scandal, had been under investigation for serious tax fraud since 2011. The Finance Ministry was given a document indicating rampant tax fraud which included invoices to oil trading companies.
Praising the independent media for doing its job, Dr Muscat asked why the Finance Ministry, which is also responsible for Enemalta, did not use the documentation provided to uncover the oil com-missions scandal.
Dr Muscat also cited an article in Malta Today and asked who were the politicians who had taken gifts related to the oil commissions.
Earlier, the Finance Ministry stressed that the information received by the ministry in August 2011 “was in no way related to any corruption allegation” but was related to under-declared turnover.
“The Ministry of Finance, which takes such matters extremely seriously, had immediately forwarded the case for investigation to the Tax Compliance Unit on August 25, 2011. All details received were immediately forwarded to the Head of TCU for investigation.”
It also stressed that at the time, the TCU and the Ministry were unaware of any possible link between the company under investigation and Mr Farrugia. Furthermore, it categorically denied any reference to gifts in the information it received.
Dr Muscat was addressing a mass meeting in 21st September Avenue, Naxxar. He began by paying tribute to Independence Day, saying he would work tirelessly over the next year to see all the Maltese celebrating all national feasts as one nation.
He did not mention the controversy surrounding deputy leader for party affairs Toni Abela, who showed up on stage with deputy leader for parliamentary affairs Louis Grech after Dr Muscat had spoken.
However, the Labour leader said the PN was mounting one of the most negative campaigns in history and the worst attacks were yet to come. Labour would respond with more positivity, he said.
Saying the days of tribal politics were over and the country was now uniting for change, Dr Muscat thanked students for the huge welcome they gave him and his movement’s ideas at Junior College, Higher Secondary and the University.
“I want you to stand up and show the country that we are ready to lead,” he said to loud applause.
Addressing the mass meeting before Dr Muscat, the president of the Austrian social democrat group in the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, stated his conviction that Labour would reign supreme.
“We won the elections in Slovakia, the Netherlands, Romania and France. Now it will be Malta who will join us,” he said, adding that his group was changing the face of Europe.