Prime Minister Joseph Muscat lashed out at the PN this evening, over claims by the DB Group that it was paying for the salaries of two top PN officials, and said that PN Leader Simon Busuttil did not inherit the situation, but rather is of his own doing.

The Prime Minister was answering questions from the public through a Facebook Live Q&A session, when he was asked about the issue.

Dr Muscat said that this is a question of trust. He admitted that there were situations over the past four years where he, and others in government, took decisions which they were criticised for, and have had mistakes made, like the Panama Papers Scandal which resulted in the PL taking a political hit. 

"We are not perfect, but we never tried to preach perfection. The maltese people understand that the basic element of trust was betrayed by the PN. Dr Busuttil, with all due respect, said he wants a reform, and is speaking after being caught with his hand in the bag, in the same way the previous government was with the €500 increase for ministers, which we never took."

He said that the PN gave false invoices for the funds it received. Dr Muscat continued that Dr Busuttil had four years to fix the situation in the PN, But "instead of fixing it, we discovered that he was the one who made it."

He also criticised the opposition for creating the Cedoli system "which is a way around the party financing laws." He explained that while the cedoli system is not illegal, false invoices are. 

"He knew about this and he was the one who asked businessmen to pay. Are there others? I still have not been told if there are," he said.

To be credible, Dr Busuttil must remove the cedoli scheme, "as one cannot have a serious public financing discussion if one party is going around it. He must also give back the funds received through the Cedoli scheme and publish the names of the people who used it.

He said that this is a situation about false invoices for false services. "That is fraud and that is money laundering. Dr Busuttil was the person who, according to reports, would meet with these businessmen and ask for the money and in return, false invoices for services never given would be issued." 

"The PL has no form of system that isnt in conformity with law." He said that this is not a normal situation for a political party, and indicated that the Electoral Commission should investigate.