Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1044434
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 OCTOBER 2018 NEWS Malta Première A T L A N T I S 31 October - 4 November Wed/Friday - 5 - 8 p.m. Sat/ Sun - 9a.m. - 9p.m. Marina di Valletta Haywarf, Pieta Over 10 yachts on display from 38 to 72 feet, incl. a selection of pre-owned yachts ready for immediate sale Visit www.azimutyachts.com.mt or www.esprityachting.com for further information CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The transparency declara- tions presented by Casa to the Nationalist Party show that his office always returned a small sum from the total EP budget that is made available to MEPs to employ staff. He says every year, an amount equivalent to around 5% to 7% of the EP's salaries budget would be paid back to the EP as the portion not spent on salaries. But the aide says that other employees' salaries, like his own, could have been in- flated to claim a larger portion of the budget. "In 2009, my salary was grossly inflated but I was never paid that declared amount in my Malta bank ac- count by the paying agent. So that large salary did not come my way." The MEPs' transparency declarations, an initiative pio- neered by the Nationalists in 2009, never listed the full sala- ries of their employees. General expenses sham But the aide goes one step further, striking at the heart of the European Parliament's own problem with transpar- ency, saying he personally made up the figures declared in Casa's transparency decla- ration citing the way he spent his €50,000 general expenses allowance. "In order to ensure we claim the full EP budget for general expenses, the figures were made up for costs for office management, office equip- ment, communications, con- ferences and events, and sta- tionery, so that we could claim the full budget. There are no receipts to back up the full amount," the aide said. The allegation confirms the shortcoming for this part of all MEPs' expenses budgets. An EU court last month rejected calls for greater transparency and upheld a decision to not require MEPs to reveal how they spend public money in- tended for their offices, name- ly the EP's own decision that MEPs do not have to provide invoices and receipts for their constituency office costs, or provide the public with details of travel expenses. The European Court of Jus- tice indeed concluded that an obligation to publish spend- ing records would undermine MEPs' privacy, concluding that campaigners had failed to prove publishing information was "appropriate and propor- tional". But Casa's aide has insisted with MaltaToday that this lack of transparency allowed him to make up fictional amounts so that the expenses budget could be justified in full. "Most MEPs claim the maximum office allowance… There is no re- quirement to provide invoices, receipts or any details on how the funds are spent." When Mal- taToday asked David Casa to comment on his "fictitious ex- penses" which were also audit- ed by a CPA for his transparency declaration, the MEP denied the allegation. "I categorically deny any ficti- tious rounding up of expenses with regard to the General Ex- penditure Al- lowance (GEA). The PN MEP delegation vol- untarily, in the interest of transparency, audits our use of public funds, not just the GEA, despite being under no obliga- tion to do so." Casa was also asked about staff members who were not paid their tax-declared in- comes in full, so as to retain a portion of the EP budget for salaries for other purposes. Casa insisted that all em- ployee salaries were received in full "in the manner agreed with them, and in conformity with any applicable rules. Sala- ries are paid either by bank transfer or by cheque. I have no right, interest or ability to monitor what staff deposit in bank accounts." His former aide has now writ- ten to OLAF saying he wants to report financial irregulari- ties "that will shed light on the way Casa operated over the years" and that as a long-time senior employee of the parlia- mentarian, he "looked forward to cooperating" by shedding light on the MEP's finances and the way money from the EU's budget for members was being utilised. Casa accuses Labour MEPs The former aide has already supplied a sworn affidavit de- tailing the euro-parliamentar- ian's cocaine habit between the years 2009 and 2017 dur- ing which the two had a close relationship. In his declara- tion, the aide blows the whistle on weekends spent in hotels where Casa would consume cocaine, spending some €700 on these sessions. The aide described Casa being "hyper" and being "so taken up by this drug habit that he would miss important political events and other private functions. There were also instances of drug taking in his office at the PN HQ but this did not continue after September 2017. His drug habits were well known to his entourage and most of his close aides and friends." Casa, who has denied the al- legation, yesterday accused La- bour MEPs of not accounting for one cent of their EP budg- ets, and made special mention of Marlene Mizzi, who was leasing her offices from her own daughter "payment-free, necessarily implying these funds are pocketed," he said. "I have physical premises rented from third parties that are paid for monthly, the cost of which alone already ac- counts for a significant portion of that budget," Casa said, re- ferring to a 2017 investigation into 249 "ghost offices" where MEPs had no office. Under EU spending rules, public funds are intended for European work, not national parties. Nationalist MEPs de- nied any wrongdoing after the Labour Party accused them of incorrectly spending part of their monthly €4,000 general allowances on renting office space at the PN's headquarters, rather than on local constitu- ency offices. The MEPs replied that the rental agreement was with Media.Link, a company owned by the PN. "I, together with my PN MEP colleagues, have been at the forefront in calling for more transparency and accountabil- ity with regard to the GEA, as currently there is absolutely no obligation to account for any portion of this budget. We have consistently voted to achieve this objective," Casa told MaltaToday yesterday. "Just this week, the PN del- egation in the European Par- liament voted in favour of ac- counting fully for that budget and for the introduction of the obligation to maintain all re- cords of payments. It is even more surreal that it was La- bour MEPs Miriam Dalli and Alfred Sant that just this week did not support an amendment voted on in plenary that would require MEPs to keep records of receipts related to the GEA. We welcome the result of the vote, that was successful, de- spite the lack of support from our PL colleagues, and look forward to the introduction of this oversight." Members of the European parliament are paid €8,611.31 a month in gross salary, plus pension. On leaving the par- liament they receive a "golden parachute", a transition allow- ance worth up to €206,664, de- pending on length of service. They also get a €4,416 month- ly "general expenditure allow- ance" awarded to fund their constituency offices, which costs the EP some €40 million alone. MEPs are also refunded travel expenses and get a €313 daily allowance for hotel and living costs when working in Brussels and Strasbourg on se- lect days. Casa has also placed his un- cle, Paul Degabriele, and his brother-in-law Etienne Zam- mit Guglielmi, on his staff pay- roll. The EP only bans the recruit- ment of spouses and non-mar- ital partners, parents, children, brothers or sisters, but not the spouses of one's siblings, or a parent's sibling. Aide wants to tell OLAF about Casa finances