Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/451763
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 25 JANUARY 2015 15 The party is being re-organised from a financial point of view. I found it in financial difficulties, and I'm dealing with that; I'm also restructuring the media of the party. I think that these three tasks, which I've already han- dled in the past [two] years, are not insignificant. Because in your ques- tion you seem to be implying that I've been sitting pretty for two years doing nothing, because I'm talking about the future. Of course I talk about what I still need to do; but it's not to say that I have one nothing. We can talk for hours about what I've done on these three issues – or- ganisation, media and finances – and over there, we have had results." What is the current financial state of the PN? "Currently, the PN and its com- mercial operations are financially sustainable. That has not fallen out of the sky: it has been achieved over the past two years, through sheer hard work. I have now turned my at- tention to the past debts that I have inherited, in order to restructure them. What I'm doing at the moment is preparing a plan to restructure the debt and settle it over the years. On finance, a great deal of work – that is not, admittedly, visible from outside –has been done." This raises another issue. Part of the reason this work is not visible is because the PN has not published its accounts. Yet Dr Busuttil talks end- lessly about transparency and ac- countability: he accuses – possibly quite rightly – the government of not being accountable… isn't there a contradiction here? "Not at all. First of all, the law on party financing is still not in place. As soon as that law is in place we will follow it to the letter. Secondly: until that law is in place, I will do what is necessary to put my party's finances back on track. And I will do it with full transparency. But I will be trans- parent when I have overcome the entire situation. When I've ended that situation, I will spell out what the situation was, and how I have tackled it." Does this means that a commit- ment to transparency and account- ability exists just because of the law? Isn't there a principle at stake here? "No, it's not just about the law. It's about doing things well. Which is exactly what I've been trying to do. But I'm not going to be transparent just for the sake of being transparent, then prejudicing the commercial op- erations of my party…" But there is also a question of na- tional trust: it is difficult for the elec- torate to trust a political party, when there is so much secrecy involved in such issues… "It is very easy to be cynical about these things. It's much harder to ad- dress them. What I'm doing is ad- dressing them." So we have to take his word for that? "For the time being, yes. When I have the solution in hand, I will get back to you on that." In the meantime, to turn to another issue: very recently, Busuttil went on record describing the latest revela- tions in the ongoing oil procurement probe as a "smokescreen" to deflect attention from the petrol and diesel prices. Does he stand by that remark? And doesn't this seem to minimise the issue of corruption? "That is entirely your conclu- sion…" Yet it was Busuttil who used the word 'smokescreen'… "What is your question?" Is he minimising the corruption scandal because it casts the PN in a bad light? "Not at all." So how does he explain that com- ment? Because at the time this was happening… "Can you please ask the question, and I will answer you? This is not a conversation, this is an interview." Yes, and some questions need time to elaborate. He seems to be very im- patient… "No, I'm asking you for a ques- tion…" The question is this: people were paying more than they needed for water and electricity under the pre- vious government, to cover up for corruption which Dr Busuttil now seems to be minimising. How does he respond to that? "My answer is, I am not minimis- ing anything at all. What I said is this. People are interested mostly in the high petrol and diesel that they are paying for today. More than things that happened in the past. That is what I said. As to what happened in the past, let me remind you that the only people who were arraigned after this oil procurement scandal, were arraigned in February 2013, under a PN administration. "No other person has been ar- raigned on this case under a Labour government for two whole years. Not only, but recently we learnt, through inspector Angelo Gafa', that the brothers of George Farrugia had to be arraigned as well, but were for some reason not arraigned under this Labour government. And guess what? Their lawyer was the former minister, Manuel Mallia. "Now you tell me who is in denial on corruption. Let me make it clear to you that I have zero tolerance for corruption. I had, I have and I will continue to have. On the other hand, our current prime minister has 100% tolerance for corruption, because he pays lip service to the fight against corruption; but when the first case came to him – and here I refer to the tendering of Smart meters – what did he do? He gave an amnesty to people who bribed Enemalta of- ficials after having tampered with their meters. So my position is very clear. Of course I am not in denial about corruption. Of course I will not disregard what happened: on the contrary, I think that justice should run its course, and all the people in- volved who deserve to be arraigned, should be arraigned. That is exactly what we did when we were in gov- ernment. We did not try to cover anything up." Interview Opposition leader SIMON BUSUTTIL defends his record at the helm of the Nationalist Party, in the face of scepticism and inauspicious signals from surveys and polls anyone off so easily' PHOTO BY CHRIS MANGION