The Nationalist Party has accused Justice Minister Owen Bonnici of 'lying' to parliament to justify the commissions being received by Henley and Partners on the sale of government stocks.

It said that on March 16 last year at a meeting of a parliamentary committee, Dr Bonnici had denied that Henley were receiving any commission from the sale of citizenship other than 4% on each granted citizenship.

Now it had resulted that Henley was also being given a 4% commission on the sale of government stock.

Applicants for Maltese citizenship need to buy government stock as part of their investment in the country.

The PN said this new commission was hidden by the government until a report was issued by the regulator.

The government therefore needed to explain why this fact was hidden from the people and why the minister had lied when he was asked a direct question in parliament.

The PN also asked how much had been given in commissions to Henley and whether the commission on the sale of government stock was legal.

In a reaction, the Justice Ministry did not directly reply to the Opposition's questions but said that the Opposition is in a panic because the government is making a success of the citizenship scheme, which has already yielded €300m for the country.

It said the Leader of the Opposition is therefore inventing stories about lies and breaches of the law.  

The ministry said the government did not issue any capital for the operation of the programme and Henley and Partners were chosen after a public, competitive call. The company handles applications for the programme on the basis of legitimate payments. The contract with the company was tabled in parliament, the ministry recalled.