Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/795987
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 8 MARCH 2017 News 7 rent controversy on the dealing be- tween the PN and DB Group takes away the spotlight from the deal sealed with the government, which is favorable to the company. This is because the government had been deceiving the public when it announced a €60 million price tag when the deal was first announced. In fact the DB San Gorg Prop- erty company, which is owned by hotelier Debono, will pay a €5 million premium and €10 million in seven annual instalments. The rest will be paid for the redemption of ground rent on individual resi- dences included in the project. Effectively, this creates a major conflict of interest for the state; for while as a regulator it has a duty to control the over development of the site, the state stands finan- cially to gain from the sale of apart- ments. This is because the more apartments are sold, the greater the revenue for both the developer and the state. The Labour Party's diversionary game It is Labour which stands to ben- efit from having the spotlight di- verted from its own dealings with Silvio Debono to his dealings with the PN. The revelations also came at a providential time for Joseph Mus- cat, who was on the receiving end of questions on Panama following a visit by the EU parliament's Pana committee. In the zero sum game of Maltese politics, revelations on funding to the PN from the DB Group will be used to dispel criticism on the deal itself. Asked by MaltaToday whether this incident cast a black cloud over Silvio Debono and the way he dealt with politicians, Muscat replied by saying that it definitely put Busuttil in a bad light. "The Labour Party has always been open to scrutiny and we do not have – and will never have – similar arrangements with Debono or anyone else." Still there is more than a pinch of irony in La- bour attacking the PN for its deal- ings with the DB Group when the advantageous land deal in St Ju- lians was concocted and sealed on this administration's watch. Moreover, by opening Pandora's box of party financing, the DB Group may have inadvertently also raised questions on Labour's own financial relations with big financial groups, which may well have sponsored it in the run up to the 2013 campaign, prompting the former deputy leader and pre- sent parliamentary speaker to de- nounce that "big contractors and businessmen have been getting too close to the Labour Party." The cause of reform The case vindicated claims made by Alternatttiva Demokratika for the past decades that the party funding system was a way through which big business conditions po- litical parties. It also reinforces the argument in favour of state fund- ing, a solution advocated by both AD and more recently by the Na- tionalist Party after returning to the opposition. The 70K payment by the DB Group to the Nationalist Party has also spurred calls by the newly set up Democratic Party to widen the scope of the party financing law to include commercial com- panies owned by political parties. Moreover de Marco's involvement as a lawyer in the deal comes in the wake of similar involvements in other companies by other poli- ticians like Beppe Fenech Adami, whose directorship in Baltimore Fiduciary was the subject of an inquiry set up to investigate why the police did not pursue a money laundering investigation on the eve of the 2013 election. This also strengthened the argu- ment for a full time parliament, where MPs are paid decently to avoid possible conflicts of inter- ests. The latest events have also led to Simon Busuttil committing himself to appoint the commis- sion to draft proposals on party funding. But it remains doubtful whether the pre-electoral climate is conducive to such a rational debate and it appears more likely that this incident will simply be used as political ammunition. Pandora's box In the eye of the storm – Simon Busuttil (left) and deputy leader Mario de Marco