Former PN minister and current MaltaToday columnist Michael Falzon lied in his ministerial declaration of assets, making no mention of the Swiss bank account which he only admitted to having last week when contacted by The Malta Independent.

At no point during his tenure as a government minister did he declare his secret Swiss bank account.

He was made Infrastructure Minister in 1987, overseeing the building of the Delimara power plant. He later held positions as Environment and Education minister.

In his 1994 asset declaration, Mr Falzon declared a bank deposit of Lm 15,000 (€34,900).

Yet when he decided to come clean in his statement on Saturday, Mr Falzon admitted to having LM200,000 (€460,000) in his secret Swiss bank account.

He voluntarily withdrew from his government appointment on the oil procurement committee, as well as suspending himself from all activities linked to the Nationalist Party, of which he is an executive member.

Mr Falzon said the €460,000 in his secret Swiss account came from payments from abroad linked to his work as an architect.

“I want to make it clear that the money came from payments for professional activities abroad for foreign clients that were carried out before I became a Minister in 1987 and that no moneys originating from Malta or from third parties were ever deposited in this account. In fact, I had no other foreign accounts,” Mr Falzon said in his statement.

The Malta Independent tried to contact Mr Falzon yesterday, but to no avail. We would like him to answer the following questions:

Under which government amnesty was the €460,000 in his secret Swiss account repatriated?

Given that he deceived his political party when in government with false asset declarations, does he think his position within the same party is tenable?