Updated at 9pm with PN's statement
The mess Opposition leader Simon Busuttil is saying he has inherited is all his doing, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this evening.
Speaking on a live question and answer session on Facebook, the Prime Minister referred to a claim by the db Group that it was invoiced by the PN media company for services never rendered to cover the wages of party officials.
Dr Busuttil has denied the claim, insisting the invoices formed part of the commercial relationship between media.link and db.
“People understand that the basic element of trust has been lost. Dr Busuttil has said that he wants reform but he only brought this up when he was caught with his finger in the pie. The same thing had happened with the €500 increase ministers had given themselves in the past. Action was only taken when they were caught.”
The Prime Minister said he believed Dr Busuttil was being fake when he said that he had inherited the mess because he was the one who made it.
“Instead of cleaning up the mess in four years, he is the one behind the fake invoices,” Dr Muscat said adding that Dr Busuttil also invented the cedoli mess, another way of working around party financing laws.
While the cedoli system was not illegal, the Prime Minister said, the fake invoices were.
“He knew about this and he was the one who asked businessmen to pay. Are there others? I still have not been told if there are,” he said.
The Opposition leader, the Prime Minister said, had to first dismantle the cedoli system, return the funds given and publish the names of those who participated in the scheme.
He should also say what other donations and payments the PN had received through fake invoices.
“This is fraud and money laundering. Dr Busuttil was the person who would meet with these businessmen and ask for the money. This is all about credibility.”
Labour, Dr Muscat said, did not have such systems in place and never had.
“This is not normal behaviour. My party has never done these things,” he said.
“We now have to see what action with Dr Busuttil take and I don’t think they need me to tell them what this should be.”
Dr Muscat said the Electoral Commission, as the responsible body, should investigate this case of fraud and money laundering.
PN is not in anyone's pocket
In a statement, the PN said that if the Prime Minister wanted to speak on money laundering, he should look at his office and not lie about others.
Contrary to Dr Muscat, it said, Dr Busuttil did not use the emergency exit to escape journalists but answered all questions put to him regarding donations and payments made by Silvio Debono’s companies to the PN and its company Media.link Communications.
Moreover, it was the PN that unveiled the details because it did not have anything to hide. On the other hand, no one knew what donations Dr Muscat’s party received.
The truth that could not be denied was that no donation stopped Dr Busuttil from speaking out and taking a position on the transfer of the ITS land to the db group.
Dr Busuttil showed that he was not in anyone’s pocket but Dr Muscat could not say the same, the PN said.