Four out of six of Malta’s top entrepreneurs and building contractors have openly admitted to making contributions, either in cash or in kind, to the two main political parties.
Days after PN secretary general Joe Saliba revealed in a newspaper interview that his party accepts secret donations from building contractors, MaltaToday Midweek contacted Malta’s leading construction magnates and asked them if they finance the two political parties.
Nazzareno Vassallo – the contractor currently building the PN headquarters in Pietà, and on whose private yacht Joe Saliba went on a controversial Mediterranean cruise last week – gruffly told us that what he does with his money remains his affair. But he stopped short of denying the rumours, fuelled by Saliba’s candid remarks to The Times on Saturday, that he finances the PN and/or MLP.
“I don’t want to tell you what I do with my money and how I use it,” he snapped over the phone. “It is simply up to me what I do with my cash.”
However, other leading contractors were more forthcoming in their replies. Charles Polidano, Anglu Xuereb and Karmenu Penza all openly declared that they have financed the two parties on various occasions, although only Xuereb was willing to reveal the amounts of his contributions, claiming that these amounted to around Lm1,000 each.
“My last donations were about two years ago, if I remember correctly,” Xuereb said. But now that he has himself entered politics with the newly formed Azzjoni Nazzjonali, he added that his days as a party financier are now behind him.
For his part, Polidano denied making any cash donations to parties, but nonetheless admitted to carrying out construction work free of charge for both parties.
“Now and again I give them truckloads of stone, free of charge,” he said with specific reference to the building of the PN headquarters. Polidano also built the screed shuttering (kontrabejt) of the Super One premises in Marsa.
Sandro Chetcuti of Sandro Estates also confirmed that he has “helped the PN with reasonable amounts” in the past… although he also hinted that nowadays, the big parties seem to no longer appreciate “reasonable” donations such as Lm100.
Chetcuti admitted that he preferred helping parties in Opposition, because he believes that “democracy must be strengthened.”
Of the six contractors asked, only one – George Muscat, chairman of GAP development plc – flatly denied making any contributions to any of the parties.
“100 per cent no funding from me. I am a floating voter and I don’t finance any party,” Muscat, whose projects include the upcoming Fort Cambridge in Tigne, told MaltaToday.
The issue of party financing in Malta has lain dormant since the 1990s, when Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami appointed the Galdes Commission specifically to explore the possibility of a new law to regulate party financing.
Despite the contractors’ suggestions that their donations to the two parties have generally been modest, with a maximum figure of Lm1,000, the Nationalist Party had insisted during the 1990s talks on a maximum limit of no less than Lm20,000 per donation.
Today, both PN general secretary Joe Saliba and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi claim that they would have no problem publishing their party’s accounts, but only on condition that the Labour Party does the same.
For its part, the Labour Party has maintained absolute silence on this issue, with Opposition leader Alfred Sant unavailable for comment by the time of going to print despite repeated attempts.