Six companies donated €10,000 each to the Labour Party, while another made a contribution of €20,000, according to last year’s annual donation report.

The seven private companies, mainly involved in construction, were named in the report submitted last month to the Electoral Commission. The documents were published by the commission on its website.

The names of companies or individuals making donations less than €7,000 do not have to be made public, according to the party financing law.

The PL is the only political party to have received donations above €7,000 from private companies. The Nationalist Party had one reportable donation of €18,500 from its own MP Tony Abela, a notary.

Political parties are obliged at law to name donors making contributions above €7,000. Donations above €25,000 are illegal and the parties are obliged to report any donations they would have refused.

The PL said it did not have to refuse any donations since all were within the legal parameters.

Another reportable donation of €13,000 was made by the Marsaxlokk Labour club in December last year.

The report showed that in 2016 the PL collected €630,590, with almost 60 per cent being donations of less than €50, most of which would have been collected in television fundraisers.

The amount is less than that collected by the Nationalist Party, which reported receiving €1.2 million in contributions last year, the vast majority being donations of €50 or less.

The PL report was only submitted last month after it had failed to register with the commission last year because its statute did not satisfy all legal requirements. The changes were approved by the PL general conference in April and the donation report was submitted soon after.

The reports for the three minor political parties made public last month showed that the Democratic Party received €7,200 in donations, the Maltese Patriots Movement €2,500 and Alternattiva Demokratika €1,300.

Labour Party donations 2016

*The individual donors are named below

kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com