Alternattiva Demokratika agreed in principle with the White Paper on the Financing of Politics but believed most proposal details should be reconsidered, chairman Arnold Cassola said today.
He told Justice Minister Owen Bonnici during a meeting AD believed that the thresholds proposed in the White Paper were too high.
“It is the opinion of Alternattiva Demokratika that whilst donations less than €4,000 per annum should remain confidential, donations between €4,000 and €40,000 per annum should be made public and should be notified to the regulator. It should not be possible to donate more than €40,000 per annum.”
Prof. Cassola noted that the White Paper did not mention loans made to political parties and ignored the possibility that a loan could be used to camouflage donations and avoid transparent procedures.
The White Paper also did not consider the required controls on parties’ commercial activities and did not examine how more effective control on the use of public properties by political parties could be introduced.
Deputy chairman Carmel Cacopardo said the Electoral Commission should not be identified as the regulatory authority on political parties and their finances. This role, he said, should be carried out by the Commissioner of Standards in Public Life.
“The Electoral Commission is under the exclusive control of the political parties represented in Parliament in contrast to the Commissioner of Standards in Public Life who, appointed with the concurrence of two thirds of the Members of Parliament, is not just a person of integrity but also a person who is acceptable to a very wide segment of the population.”
AD, he said, agreed with the proposed registration of the political parties but believed the White Paper entered into unnecessary detail.
He said that while AD agreed with and accepted the proposal that the accounts of a political party should be audited, the White Paper does not distinguish between the large parties, which had an annual turnover measured in millions, and AD, whose turnover did not exceed €15,000 per annum.
“In this respect, Alternattiva Demokratika is proposing that political parties whose turnover does not exceed €100,000 per annum would have their audit fees shouldered by the regulator,” he said.