It is the privacy of his business partners that has kept Adrian Delia from making a full disclosure of assets, the Nationalist Party leadership hopeful suggested yesterday.
Since announcing his bid for the PN’s top post, Dr Delia has reiterated that he will make a full disclosure of assets and liabilities if elected leader, leaving open the question as to why he is refusing to do so immediately.
Asked by The Sunday Times of Malta the reason for his reluctance, Dr Delia noted that none of the past candidates for the PN leadership had ever presented their declaration of assets before entering politics.
“I am not at all reluctant to make a full disclosure of assets, which usually includes liabilities… I am currently working with my business partners to be able to disclose my assets and liabilities while preserving their privacy as private citizens,” Dr Delia said.
So far, two other contenders for the PN leadership, Chris Said and Alex Perici Calascione, have published their declarations of assets. The other, Frank Portelli, has not.
The Birkirkara lawyer ended up in the eye of a storm yesterday after it emerged that a company in which he holds a nine per cent share defaulted on loan repayments and has an outstanding HSBC debt of €7.2 million.
The controversy, sparked by Daphne Caruana Galizia on her blog late on Friday, revolves around the company Mġarr Developments Ltd, which took out a €12 million loan from HSBC in 2006 to purchase the Mġarr Hotel in Gozo and redevelop it into apartments.
Ms Caruana Galizia reported on her telephone conversation with Dr Delia in which he said the debt would be cleared once all apartments in Mġarr were finished and sold within 18 months. In a statement yesterday, Dr Delia said Ms Caruana Galizia had “ignored the fact that the said company has actually more assets than debts”. He described her reporting as a “purely personal and manipulative attack” on his family and himself.
He insisted he had nothing to hide and everything was transparent and legal.
Asked by this newspaper whether in the light of his insistence that he had nothing to hide, the reluctance to make a full disclosure now was causing unnecessary suspicion, Dr Delia admitted this was something he was thinking about.
“This is a relevant consideration, which I am making following the attacks on my integrity by people who want to shut me up, and concerns raised by well-meaning people outside of the PN,” he said.
Dr Delia said the mud-slinging in the PN election was by far the worst he had ever witnessed. “There are hidden hands who want to retain the status quo, but from the feedback I am getting from party councillors and members, people want a new way of doing politics.”
The candidate, a complete outsider, insisted his financial position was solid and reiterated his commitment to a process of selling all of his business interests if elected PN leader.