Labour continues to slam Busuttil over ‘false invoices’

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici and PL MP Charles Mangion yesterday kept up the campaign against the Nationalist Party over its previous relations with the db Group, calling on PN leader Simon Busuttil to give a clear account of the “false invoices in return for donations”.

The two MPs referred to Dr Busuttil’s comments made following a visit to the University of Malta on Friday, arguing that Dr Busuttil has not yet confirmed, or denied, whether the company that had been invoiced for commercial services was the db Group Sky Gourmet Company, which had no real need to advertise.

They also said that Dr Busuttil has yet to say whether there are others who are paying PN wages, and that Dr Busuttil has confirmed there are invoices involving amounts higher than the maximum donation permissible by law.

“He is saying that the donations were published, yet nowhere was there information regarding donations exceeding €70,000. He has also not said where the adverts the invoices were for appeared.

“The Opposition Leader is breaching party financing legislation, and because he has his back against the wall, he is lying,” Minister Bonnici said.

“When in a hole, stop digging,” he said, mockingly repeating the phrase the PN has been known to direct toward the Labour Party.

PL MP Charles Mangion said that while Dr Busuttil speaks of good governance, transparency and honesty, he asked entrepreneurs to pay the PN’s wages.

He said that since the db Group had stated that it did not have a commercial relationship with the PN, he asked Dr Busuttil to say what the adverts he claimed the payments were for

He argued that PN Treasurer Alex Perici Calascione did not know about them, and that PN Deputy Leader Mario de Marco said that these were donations.

PN accuses PM of being ‘hostage of corrupt deals’

In response, the PN said that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is a “hostage of corrupt deals made prior to the last election”.

The party said in a retaliatory statement that, “The easiest thing for the PN Leader to do due to the donations the party had received from db Group would have been to remain silent. However, whoever does that is a corrupt politician. Simon Busuttil is the opposite of that, and spoke and acted in the interest of the Maltese and Gozitan people who are having land worth €200 million stolen from them for €15 million.”