The Labour and Nationalist parties continued their tit-for-tat over party donations today.

Ministers Owen Bonnici and Edward Zammit in a press conference again referred to the donations to the PN by the db Group and insisted that the fact that Simon Busuttil found the party in dire financial straits did not give him a licence to 'breach' the party financing law. 

Referring to invoices and receipts issued by Media.link, the PN's commercial arm, for what the db Group insists were effectively donations, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said that contrary to what Dr Busuttil claimed, party-owned companies also fell under the party funding law.

Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis queried how Dr Busuttil first said he woudl return the db Group's donation, because it was 'dirty' money, but yesterday he told The Sunday Times of Malta they he would not, because the PN had no done anything illegal. 

He insisted that the PN should publish the invoices which media.link sent the db Group, invoices which were false because they did not cover any service. 

PN REACTION

In a reaction, the Nationalist Party said the ministers could not be taken seriously once their own party had not registered itself in terms of the party financing law.

"The only political party which is breaking the party financing law is their own party, by not registering within the time defined by the law and by not submitting its list of donations," the PN said. 

The law was also being broken because Labour's officials were being paid by the government.

The PN also insisted that the media.link invoices covered programme sponsorships on Net TV which amounted to  €70,800, including VAT.

This commercial arrangement was in line with the party financing law, which in any case applied only to political parties when they received donations for their activities and functions and did not apply to commercial companies.  

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