Nationalist Party leadership contender Adrian Delia this afternoon published his statement of affairs which expose his highly stretched position due to assets existing in the form of company shares and property, without any cash to his name registered in Malta. His net position however stands at €1.6 million.

Delia came under heavy fire for not publishing his full statement of affairs earlier, seeing as the PN’s paid-up members only have one day to review the matter before Saturday's election.

He argued that no other leadership race, with either the PN or the Labour Party, involved such scrutiny and that he did this out of his own free will. He also stressed that because this statement of affairs was drawn up by an independent company called Mazars, a multidisciplinary accountancy firm, one would have to consider when the company was commissioned to draw up the report, as “these things take time”.

In total, his shares in immovable property amounts to €2.3 million, investments from shares owned in companies amount to €40,565, his net position from a development in Mgarr amounts to €185,082 and other recoverable balances from related companies and related parties amount to €74,936.

With regards bank financing, his home and personal loans amount to -€725,084, bank overdraft and credit card balanced amount to -€104,426, tax balances due amount to -€51,924 while interest and charges on tax balances due amount to -€34,859.

Overall, his net position stands at €1.6 million; however as can be seen from above his position is illiquid due to the lack of cash money.

Making reference to a story published by Daphne Caruana Galizia, where she claimed that Bank of Valletta had closed down his current account, Delia refuted this categorically and even said that on 22 August of this year he opened up a new current account.

Prior to this, he said his current accounts were in the form of overdrafts, while waving a cheque book when addressing members of the press.

He also brandished a letter from Bank of Valletta, claiming to have been penned by the Chief Business Development Operator which outlined the positive relationship Delia has had and continues to have with the bank.

Delia slammed the story claiming the bank has forcibly closed down his current account by saying this is a weak last-ditch argument aimed at confusing the public.

Asked by members of the press about his precarious position due to high debts and low cash, Delia said that should he be elected leader, he would sell all shares and investments off, while also stressing that sums of money are still owed to him by third parties.

He had partially relayed his assets dealing with property and shares in a media interview, however this is the first time an independent firm has reviewed his assets and liabilities registered in Malta, it is also the first time he has revealed his tax balances due.

The Malta Independent asked Delia for the upper limit on his bank overdraft, which could serve as an indication of the bank’s trust in his ability to settle debts. He explained that he has various overdraft accounts, and together with his credit card this amounts to roughly €190,000, to which he has drawn about half.

Mazars report

The statement of affairs has been labelled ‘an independent assurance report’, and not an audited report. An assurance service is generally used to improve information or the context of information about a particular subject in order to keep decision makers better informed. An audit on the other hand is a formal examination of financial statements carried out by an auditor, and generally includes overseas assets and liabilities.

In the introductory remarks, it states that “The scope of the engagement is to provide an opinion on whether anything has come to our attention that the statement of affairs is materially misstated. In carrying out this assignment we based our work on information forwarded and representations made to us by the client”.

In its concluding remarks it then states that the company has no reason to believe that all financial documentation sent to it by Delia for the purposes of this report is not factual and that the statement of affairs Delia had initially presented has not been misstated.

It must be considered however that the work is limited in that it excludes assets owner and liabilities due by his spouse, and that the assignment is limited to Delia’s assets and liabilities which are situated in Malta.