The Nationalist Party has asked Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa to investigate the Labour Party over a draft deal that would have seen a company linked to it receive €200,000 from Yorgen Fenech.

In a press conference held on Tuesday morning, PN general council president Mark Anthony Sammut and PN general election candidate Charles Azzopardi (who is a former PL mayor) spoke about the recent news reports which read that a company linked to the Labour Party allegedly fronted a draft "consultancy" deal that would have seen it receive up to €200,000 Yorgen Fenech, the owner of 17 Black.

The Times of Malta had reported that Fenech had been sent the draft 33-month consultancy agreement in May 2016, by Gino Cauchi, who was the Labour Party CEO at the time, on behalf of a company named B.E.D Ltd. The company at the time, the report continues, had no visible links to the Labour Party, but the agreement sent to Fenech was drafted on a computer used by an executive of Labour media arm ONE Productions. The agreement would have seen Fenech paying B.E.D Limited a flat rate of €6,000 per month to act as consultants for Tumas Group on matters such as marketing, research, digital graphics, and audio-visual productions. The report says that it's not known whether the agreement was signed and enacted, but cites awareness of at least two invoices sent by B.E.D to Fenech in 2018.

The PN representatives said that this was a way for the Labour Party to try and get around the Party Financing regulations.

Mark Anthony Sammut said that the PN asked the police to investigate these allegations, on the way the PL is being financed, to look into whether the PL has any other similar arrangements with other entities that signed suspicious contracts with the government or took public land for a far cheaper price than the market price.

Mark Anthony Sammut said questioned how people can believe that the Party Financing Law is being enforced as it is meant to be when the Minister for Justice, Edward Zammit Lewis "is the same person who took instructions from Yorgen Fenech. Zammit Lewis has not resigned and the Prime Minister has not fired him."

The Labour Party on Monday said that it is not receiving any money from Yorgen Fenech, and isn't receiving €200,000 from him. Yorgen Fenech’s uncle, Ray Fenech, who is a director of Tumas Group, told the Times of Malta that the agreement was not recognised but that B.E.D Limited was used by the group for PR, design, and branding amongst other things.

Charles Azzopardi said that the news shows the "clear strong and intimate ties between the Labour Party and 17 Black owner Yorgen Fenech. "Not only is the PL government not fighting against corruption, but the PL is an octopus when it comes to the tentacles of corruption."

He said that when he used to militate within the Labour Party, it used to press on about the Lira clock scandal back in 2013, "as though it was corruption that irreparably damaged the country's reputation, which wasn't true. Until 2013, Malta was a normal country. The PL, many a time spoke about corruption and that this is a tax that, at the end of the day, the people end up paying. Today, the PL government is a best practice for corruption."

Azzopardi said that the company B.E.D. Ltd "used the same address as the PL." He said that this was an attempt for Fenech to finance the Labour Party. "Why is there such a close friendship. Why did it have to be the PL to help the Tumas Group through its consultancy?"

"The scope was for the PL, due to party financing laws, to find a way to get the money. The concept of 'if you can't go through the door, go through the window' (...) what happened will continue to damage this country's reputation."

Taking questions from the press, Mark Anthony Sammut was asked whether the PN is also asking the police to investigate whether Pierre Portelli and Adrian Delia were receiving funds from Yorgen Fenech and if there were any attempts to derail David Casa's MEP election campaign.

"Regarding the allegations about Pierre Portelli, a magisterial inquiry was already launched and is ongoing. Portelli today does not form part of any party structure. At the time these allegations were made, none of these people occupied an executive role from which they had influence over decisions that could have in some way been taken in the granting of contracts or anything similar," Sammut said.

He was asked whether the PN would be open to having a wider investigation into all political parties and the way they are being financed, and was also asked other questions regarding party financing. He was asked about the PN's media company not having paid taxes in years. He was also asked about money given by the db Group to the PN in the past.

Mark Anthony Sammut said that the PN recognises that the political parties, when it comes to paying tax, must set a good example. "The PN on every arrears there are regarding VAT, are being paid," he said. "There are arrangements for these payments to continue being made."

Regarding the financing from the db Group, "there were donations made to the PN from that group, donations which were made according to law. But when this group tried to use these donations to silence the PN or change the PN's position, the PN was not bought and it was transparent about all that was happening."

He said that the PN is open to any kind of investigation that can be done on all parties. "We have nothing to hide. Our donations were always in line with the law."

He said that the current system means that political parties are dependent on donations. "This is not ideal in a democracy. In fact our position, as confirmed by the PN's General Council, which we took back in December 2019, was clear, that the model of party financing the PN wants is one of state financing, where donations to parties would be, ideally, prohibited in every form."