Opposition leader Adrian Delia is in the process of buying a new Siġġiewi property, while still owing the taxman over €80,000 in arrears.
Dr Delia’s wife Nickie Vella De Fremeaux applied in July 2016 for planning permission to make structural alterations to the property to have it interconnect with their existing Siġġiewi home.
The property in question, 119, Triq il-Kbira, Siġġiewi, was not listed in Dr Delia’s financial statement of affairs, which was published last September just before his election as PN leader.
According to Dr Delia's August 2017 statement of affairs, he owed the banks over €700,000 in personal and home loans, and over €100,000 in credit card and overdraft balances.
Contacted by The Sunday Times of Malta, Dr Delia said the property had not been declared in his statement of affairs as it was still under a promise of sale agreement.
Asked how he intended to finance this purchase given his tax arrears, Dr Delia said his pending tax bill had nothing to do with cash flow problems.
“The taxes will be paid. One [issue] has nothing to do with the other. The taxes will be paid before I purchase,” Dr Delia insisted.
This directly contradicts what a spokeswoman for Dr Delia had told The Sunday Times of Malta last year. The spokeswoman had said the main reason for Dr Delia falling behind on his tax payments “was of a cash flow nature”.
Tax returns given to The Sunday Times by Dr Delia last year showed he did not pay any tax in 2015 and underpaid his tax bill for 2014 by €33,668.
Dr Delia told The Sunday Times of Malta he would try take a loan on the property, and if not, seek to finance it through other means. He has previously said he has no savings, as he prefers to invest his money.
Apart from his tax debts, Dr Delia is jointly responsible, together with his wife and business partners, for a €7.2 million debt on a Gozo property development venture.
Dr Delia’s architect is Labour adviser Robert Musumeci, a former PN Siġġiewi mayor, who often takes to social media to defend the PN leader against the “establishment” working against him.
Questioned about his choice of Dr Musumeci as his architect, Dr Delia said the former mayor had been his architect long before he [Delia] entered politics.
“He lives 20 metres down the road. He’s an architect in Siġġiewi, my properties are in Siġġiewi.” He said that Dr Musumeci was being paid for his services: “I pay for every service I get.”