It has been a story of twists and turns but nobody ever imagined the ITS land deal would boomerang against the Nationalist Party.
While it criticised the government for selling the prime site in St George’s Bay on the cheap, the PN was asking the company acquiring the land to finance the monthly pay for its topmost officials.
PN deputy leader Mario de Marco, who was involved as legal advisor with the db Group, had to resign the legal brief last Saturday after his role in the negotiations between the DB Group and the government were revealed. The deputy leader faced internal pressure for what was deemed to be a conflict of interest.
PN leader Simon Busuttil when speaking to supporters in Marsa yesterday morning, said Dr de Marco’s decision should be emulated by others. He said his deputy leader had “a clear conflict” and the party would not beholden to personal interests.
However, Dr Busuttil made no reference to the fact that he had known of Dr de Marco’s involvement with db when the government issued an expression of interest for the ITS site in November 2015.
But barely had the dust on the de Marco fallout settled than all hell broke loose.
At 5.30pm, Dr Busuttil went on Net TV to condemn the db Group for what he described as a threatening message received soon after the morning meeting in Marsa.
He later went as far as describing it as an unprecedented “threat to democracy”.
The message was a request for a meeting so that the PN would return all money it had received from the db Group.
This, Dr Busuttil insisted, reinforced his determination to change politics, to draw a line and not allow any dirt. It was a short statement made during a fundraising telethon on Net TV. Dr Busuttil did not reveal the amount of funds in question.
db Group CEO Arthur Gauci later confirmed the message that he sent Dr Busuttil, publishing the full text in a statement that took the lid off a bubbling cauldron.
The company statement released at 7.25pm said Dr Busuttil was “fully abreast” of the PN’s requests for the db Group to finance the salaries of the party secretary general and CEO. He was also aware that the PN had accepted the funds, the company added.
Such requests to cover monthly salaries happened before Dr Busuttil became leader and continued afterwards.
“We were specifically asked to cover the monthly salaries of various PN party personnel… more specifically since [Dr Busuttil] became leader we were asked to cover the salaries of both the secretary general and the party’s CEO,” the company said.
The company denied ever asking for any favours from the PN either when in government or not.
“I reiterate that the funds were always requested by the PN and not donated by us,” Mr Gauci said, adding any allegation of corruption from the PN was simply “a hurtful lie”.
The company welcomed the PN’s call for a probe by the Auditor General. Mr Gauci said the price of the public land at ITS was not determined by the parties to the deal but by Deloitte, an auditing firm, and the group abided by the decision.
The revelation that db had been financing the salaries of the PN’s highest officials came as a bolt in the blue and it was just after 9pm when the PN telethon had raised nearly €60,000 that Dr Busuttil again took to the television screen.
Standing alone, he said the PN was not for sale.
If this is dirty money we do not want it and you can take it back.- Simon Busuttil
“We regularly collect money from people and businesses but never has anyone asked us to shut up or imposed on us a political obligation. Today was the first time this has happened and my reply was ‘no’,” Dr Busuttil said.
Appealing for people to support the party and donate money, the PN leader said the party would return the money. “If this is dirty money we do not want it and you can take it back,” he said.
Again, he failed to make reference to db’s claim that it had been asked to finance the salaries of party officials and did not disclose the sum in question.
The Labour Party said it had received a donation of €2,000 from the db Group last year, as it reacted to the developments by asking the Opposition leader to disclose what type of arrangement he had with the company.