Malta's MEPs are still refusing to disclose their campaign expenses, despite promises by some before the June 6 election that they would make the figures public.
Three MEPs - two Nationalists and one Labour - ignored The Sunday Times' request to divulge the costs of their campaign, while two others said they would abide by the law but did not disclose any information.
At least eight MEP candidates appear to have exceeded the legal expense limit of around €18,600 set by legal notice 313 of 2004.
When The Sunday Times asked to be present as candidates take the obligatory oath to declare their expenses, the Labour Party said it "never called in candidates to take an oath on campaign expenditure in any of the past elections" saying it is up to the Electoral Commissioner to oversee the process. On the other hand, the Nationalist Party said "this is a matter for the candidates to decide".
In an interview with The Sunday Times (pages 10,11), Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said he would be "extremely worried and disappointed" if anyone took a false oath. "I am a strict person on this issue. If you take an oath, that oath has to be correct," Dr Gonzi said.
Dr Gonzi said candidates faced legal consequences if they did not stick to the limit on expenditure, but his office later added that it had no intention of asking the Police Commissioner to investigate the claims.
However, the Prime Minister also said that he hoped the parliamentary Select Committee would discuss this issue with a view to raising the campaign spending limits.
Both the PN and the PL insisted on their commitment to transparency and accountability but neither party will be checking whether the candidates' declarations of expenses are in breach of the law.
The interpretation of the law by both parties is inconsistent. The PL said it did not promote individual candidates for these elections, but a team.
The PN said: "The expenditure of the party during the MEP election has nothing to do with the expenses of individual candidates."
But Georg Sapiano, a PN candidate at the last general election - who criticised the limit but said he abided by it so as not to take false oath - insisted that party expenditure is "a relevant expense within a candidate's limit because the phrase in the law 'anything done' is so broad that it captures everything a candidate derives an electoral benefit from".
He said one of the reasons why this law needed to be reviewed was because parts of its wording and the stipulated limits were completely out of synch with the way politics is done today.
The PL, meanwhile, said the Electoral Commission would ensure that the electoral laws were respected.
Yet the commission recently told The Sunday Times that it received the declarations from the parties and published them in the Government Gazette. If anybody then felt that a declaration was incorrect, he or she should complain to the "police, or something like that".
In an effort to resolve the ambiguities surrounding the interpretation and implementation of the electoral law, The Sunday Times also contacted elected MEPs.
David Casa and Simon Busuttil ignored the request in spite of their previously declared commitment to "ensure that all accounts are properly done" once the election campaign is over as well as to "abide by the transparency rules as adopted by the Nationalist Party".
Labour MEP John Attard Montalto, who appears to have been among the biggest spenders in the run up to the elections, found the time to write an article on the need for democracy in Iran last week but did not reply to questions on whether elected representatives should be committed to transparency and accountability.
The campaign of another elected PL MEP, Louis Grech, was also costly but he chose not disclose his expenses. Instead, he told The Sunday Times: "Rest assured that I will be complying with the relevant laws in connection with my campaign expenditure during the MEP elections."
Mr Grech did not answer further questions sent to him to clarify his position.
Newly-elected MEP Edward Scicluna said: "I intend to take an oath that my expenses were within the legal limit when called to do so. I also believe that elected representatives should be committed to transparency and accountability with regard to established legal limits on donations from third parties." But he did not disclose how much he spent.
PN candidate Edward Demicoli has been the only one to admit that his campaign expenditure exceeded the legal limit even though he said his campaign was "by far" one of the least expensive.
Mr Demicoli said the electoral law was being broken by almost everyone: "I will not apologise for failing to play the game by the same old rules - first break the law and then swear by God that I didn't."