When game over is not over at all

A fortnight ago, we reported that Adrian Delia, the leader of the Nationalist Party, had confirmed that his tax arrears had been resolved and the debt had been paid. Speaking on Radio 101 yesterday, interviewer Sergio Mallia asked the leader of the Opposition if reports by the newspaper KullĦadd, on the leader of Opposition finally paying his tax debts at the end of March, were true. In an article published by the paper, it was reported that Delia had paid the Inland Revenue his overdue tax debt of €55,000 at the end of March, after the PN fundraising marathon.

“It has been resolved and it has been paid now,” the leader of the Opposition confirmed. Delia shut down any allegations that the timing of his payment in full had anything to do with it taking place after the PN’s fundraising marathon, adding: “I paid my tax myself and with no one else’s help.” Game over? Open and shut case? Hardly, it seems.

As revealed last Sunday, Delia still has to pay more than what he has already paid.

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In the comments given to The Malta Independent, Delia confirmed that he still had to finish paying his tax arrears. As the Labour Party remarked, he had said that it was game over but it is still game on.

Many have questioned his credibility: how can he, as a party leader, speak about a wide range of issues considering he owed €51,924 in taxes and another €34,859 in interest and charges on overdue taxes?

He published his financial affairs through a report put together just a day before the PN leadership race.

Apart from alleging that Delia paid the tax authorities €55,000 as part of settling his dispute from PN marathon funds, the Labour Party has also alleged that he was lying and that he still owed taxes for 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Now he has stressed that he has settled his tax “dispute,” which, he says, is different from saying that he has settled the full amount owed to the tax authorities.

“I was referring to the issue I had raised myself with the pre-election financial report [on the radio interview declaring the tax arrears had been solved],” he says now. “This is not something that I was hiding, like they [Labour] are doing; this is something that I [revealed] myself, when I said that I had a dispute and that I would resolve it. I resolved it and when I did, I paid what I had to pay. That’s what I meant when I said game over.”

This is all hogwash and reflects badly both on the leader of the Opposition and on his party, which lets him get away with such statements. He is now firmly in control of the Nationalist Party and this is one more reason why he must come up with a clear statement on his tax dues in a way that can be understood by the man in the street.

Apart from the sheer amount of dues, there is nothing to be ashamed of: we all – or almost all – have our tax problems or dues. But the country, if not the party, expects a clear statement of affairs from the leader of the Opposition, not the fudging we have come to associate with the Joseph Muscat government.