Following a recommendation by Nationalist Party secretary general Joe Saliba, the Cabinet of Ministers is to discuss a set of regulations addressing the thorny issue of political party financing, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.
Following successful discussions at ministerial level, which are expected to begin at the next convening of Cabinet, the matter would then move to a parliamentary committee set up explicitly to discuss the issue.
The initiative, Dr Gonzi explained, was undertaken with a view to fostering more trust in the political system and as a reflection of the government’s belief that the people should have more information on the ways in which Malta’s political parties are financed.
Speaking to journalists yesterday morning, Dr Gonzi said the initiative had been taken in hand following a letter from Mr Saliba, which had proposed the establishment of a parliamentary committee tasked with drafting new regulations on party financing.
The issue of party financing, Dr Gonzi added, has in the past been discussed both in public as well as within commissions, but unfortunately neither sets of discussions had resulted in a concrete agreement.
The time has come, he added, for the issue to be concluded once and for all.
Mr Saliba’s letter called for further transparency on issues related to party financing and that the issue should no longer continue to be discussed only internally within the party, but that it should rather move on to other levels.
As such, Mr Saliba called for a parliamentary committee with a remit of public financing to be set up to draw up a set of regulations. He added that the Nationalist Party would lead the way in suggesting proposals toward the new rules.
The regulations, Dr Gonzi said, would be established in the name of all parties and as such urged the opposition to make its contribution by coming forward with its own proposals in the area.
Referring to work on drafting a party financing code undertaken in the 1990s by the Galdes Commission, Dr Gonzi recalled how at the time there had not been an agreement on the size of donations that had to be declared by political parties.
Dr Gonzi, speaking in his capacity of leader of the Nationalist Party, yesterday said he was not tied to any amounts established during the time of the Galdes Commission, but rather that the benchmarks set at the time would be reduced, but follow along the lines of setting a monetary threshold of donations that had to be declared and published, as well as where such donations had come from.
Dr Gonzi said the Nationalist Party, as it does, is prepared to publish the accounts of its commercial companies as well as how the work on the party’s new headquarters, Dar Centrali, had been financed.
Speaking later in the day, Dr Gonzi remarked how investment and employment were at their highest levels of the last 12 years, which, he said, was no coincidence but rather the result of the government’s serious and focussed policies.
Dr Gonzi was speaking at Independence Gardens in Sliema as part of the Nationalist Party’s Independence celebrations.
Over the last three years in which he has served as prime minister, Dr Gonzi said 225 new factories had been approved, helping to lead unemployment levels to the lowest in 12 years.
The difference between policies of the government and those of the opposition was that the government firmly believed in the potential and capacity of the country, while those of the opposition could make no such claim. The opposition’s 22 months in power, meanwhile, had brought the country and its people serious problems.
Turning to the PN’s vision for 2015 and its six economic pillars, Dr Gonzi heralded the information technology as holding great potential – particularly through the upcoming SmartCity project, the budding financial services sector, which already employs some 12,000 workers, as well as the government’s bid to develop centres of excellence in the areas of education, health, manufacturing and tourism – all areas in which the government will continue to invest.