The Parliamentary Secretary responsible for the Fisheries sector Alicia Bugeja Said received significant financial backing from three well-known companies in the fishing industry, financial declarations filed with the Electoral Commission show.

Answering questions from this newsroom, a spokesperson for Bugeja Said however said that the donations – which made up over half of the money she received during the electoral campaign – were in line with local electoral laws and will not condition her work.

Documents filed with the Electoral Commission and acquired by The Malta Independent show that Bugeja Said received a €2,500 donation from fish distributor Frutti di Mare, another €2,500 from fish farm operator Malta Fish Farming, and a further €1,200 from well-known fish importers Azzopardi Fisheries.

Those three donations make up 54% of all the money - €11,400 – which Bugeja Said told the Electoral Commission she had received during her electoral campaign.

The rest of her donations came from one of the Labour Party’s favoured events suppliers Nexos Lighting (€1,400), catering suppliers St. Catherine’s Ltd (€1,800), the Mgarr restaurant Ta’ L-Ingliz (€1,000), and transport service provider Smart Garage (€1,000).

In her financial declarations, Bugeja Said told the Electoral Commission that she had spent €15,945 on her ultimately successful electoral campaign.

Hire costs were the biggest expense from those, with Bugeja Said spending €4,950 in this regard.  She spent a further €2,295 on advertising, €1,900 on printing, €800 on postage, and €400 on stationery.  The remaining €4,100 were spent on miscellaneous expenses.

The Malta Independent asked Bugeja Said whether the donations she received from Frutti di Mare, Azzopardi Fisheries, and Malta Fish Farming constitute a conflict of interest, and whether she thinks that these donations would appear to influence decisions taken in the future by her secretariat, particularly if they happen to favour these companies.

Replying to the questions, a spokesperson told this newsroom that Bugeja Said had “declared the donations she received as per the law and in the most open and transparent manner.”

“Electoral law contemplates and expressly authorises the giving of donations, in line with the law, to electoral candidates and dictates that these donations are declared in specific forms which are then published so that any conflict of interest is avoided and so transparency is safeguarded,” the spokesperson continued.

“The Parliamentary Secretary will be carrying out her work with the greatest seriousness and honestly and should be judged according to what she achieves in her post,” the spokesperson added.

“Certainly to the contrary as what is suggested in your questions, the fact that she received donations which were declared in line with the law as a candidate, as happens in electoral systems abroad, will not stop her from doing her work in the most correct manner,” the spokesperson concluded.

The general election last March was the first in which Bugeja Said contested as a candidate.  She has a PhD in anthropology and conservation from the University of Kent and was previously engaged as a director in the government’s Fisheries Department.

She performed reasonably well in the polls, but ultimately still had to rely on the gender corrective mechanism in order to be elected into Parliament after falling just short in the full general election and then in a casual election.

She was appointed to Cabinet by Robert Abela soon after, taking up the role of Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Animal Rights under the remit of the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Animal Rights, which continues to be headed by Anton Refalo.