Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning accused the Opposition leader of making a U-turn on a pledge he made last week when he said the Nationalist Party would refund the money donated by db Group.
Dr Muscat levelled his criticism during a brief telephone comment on Labour’s radio station.
In his remarks, the Prime Minister referred to the controversy surrounding the Nationalist Party, following the claims made by db Group that it had been asked for money to cover the salaries of the party’s general secretary and CEO.
The PN has refuted these claims saying the donation was of €3,500, while the amount of €70,000 was given to the party’s media company (Media.Link) as part of a commercial transaction.
However, the PN has refused to publish a copy of the Media.Link invoices saying a commercial relationship should remain private.
Meanwhile, in an interview published by The Sunday Times of Malta, Dr Busuttil said the PN would not be giving the money back to db Group, as this would be conveying the message that the PN had received dirty money or had done something illegal.
In his comments, the Prime Minister this morning quoted a story from Labour’s Sunday paper Kullħadd, which said that the donations received from the db Group totalled €500,000.
He said that the Media.Link invoices issued for the donations constituted “fraud” as no such service was ever rendered by the party’s media company.Dr Muscat accused the Opposition leader of “political hypocrisy” over the PN’s refusal to publish these invoices due to “commercial sensitivity”.
Dr Muscat accused the Opposition leader of “political hypocrisy” over the PN’s refusal to publish these invoices due to “commercial sensitivity”.
“This is an incredible excuse from somebody who a few weeks ago took the government to task for redacting parts of the power station agreement which were justified as their publication could have jeopardised Enemalta’s position,” he remarked.
On the other hand, the publication of these invoices would have no commercial repercussions, he said.
Dr Muscat also accused the Opposition leader of backtracking from a promise made last week, when he had pledged to refund the donation given by db Group.
The Prime Minister pointed out that the parties’ media companies were also subject to the party financing law, contrary to what Dr Busuttil was saying.
The law also applied to commercial entities in which the party was a shareholder, the Prime Minister pointed out.
Commenting on the four years of the Labour government, Dr Muscat said that the bulk of the proposals in the manifesto had already been implemented.
He noted that the permanent closure of the Marsa power station, which had been kept on cold standby for the last two years, was a historic milestone, which the PN had failed to reach in 25 years.
The Prime Minister also reiterated his stance in favour of female quotas in general elections, saying these would help to break the glass ceiling which had kept the number of female MPs low.
However, such a measure should not be to the detriment of male MPs.