Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/863487
14 Dr Delia, you recently reacted quite aggressively to press reports concerning your assets, business interests and liabilities: claiming that MaltaToday 'attacked Simon Busuttil', and asking the public to 'condemn' this attack. You then took issue with the fact that you were exposed as a shareholder in a company that has a banking debt of €7.2 million. Why did you not make a full disclosure of these assets and liabilities before they were revealed? I don't think I reacted aggressive- ly at all. No one asked me a ques- tion I didn't answer. Indeed, with Saviour Balzan on Xtra – on TV, so people saw exactly how I reacted – I disclosed all my properties and holdings. I have no difficulty do- ing this at all. Let's start with the premise: this is a race, a contest, to elect a party leader. The party is structured, and has a statute which is very clear. The statute does not require that a declaration of assets and liabilities is done before the election, or is submitted with the application. It doesn't say it. Those are the rules... But that's not really the premise... ...if you'll allow me: when I was in the footballing world, I was the first to suggest that anybody en- tering any post of responsibility should not only conduct due dili- gence... but if it is a high-ranking post, it should be an enhanced due diligence process. And in- deed, that suggestion of mine led to a situation whereby today, in the football association, this is done. The Nationalist Party could have adopted this stance; it could have put it in a simple regulation to say that, before submitting the nomination, there is a pre-appli- cation stage where you submit to due diligence proceedings. The party should actually go through it, make sure it's happy with it, then submit the list to its electorate: the counsellors, then the card-holding members... You're arguing as if the only reason to make a full declaration of assets is because the party statute compels you to do so. Yet you yourself saw the importance of due diligence in the football world. Why don't you see it in politics, too? But I do see it. It's very clear. In the footballing world, I saw the need, and I suggested it... and after a couple of seasons, the suggestion was taken on board. I am making the same suggestion now. Why did you not act on your own suggestion, then? Instead, you made it sound as if the press had no business to be asking questions about your financial circumstances. No, no. When a specific question was asked, I answered immediately on TV. Would you like to ask me the question again? What are your assets and liabilities? I have my house in Main Street, Siggiewi. Nothing to hide, it's there. I live in it with my family. I have a couple of rooms with some fields in Siggiewi, limits of Rabat. They've been there for a couple of years. I also have – and I've already said this multiple times – a 40% shareholding in a small company called Carnaby: we import wines and sell them. I've already said I have a 9% share in Mgarr Develop- ments Ltd: which has one develop- ment in Gozo... And also a debt of €7.2 million... We'll come to everything in due course. Then I also have my part- nership in the law firm, and its re- lated companies. And I've already said, multiple times, that I will be selling off everything. And this wasn't given much importance... It was reported... But it wasn't a headline. It also wasn't a headline that I said that it is important to see what some- body brings into politics – and, most important of all, that after exiting politics, we ascertain that politicians wouldn't have profited illegally or illicitly out of their po- litical stature. So if I enter politics with an asset-base of '100'... when I leave, it's important that I wouldn't have exited with an asset-base of 'one million'. Illicitly. That's the most important thing. I also said I do not have any companies abroad; overseas accounts; nominee-ships abroad; I don't have people front- ing me abroad. I said this... You also said you would have no problem making a declaration of assets once (or if) you are elected. Isn't that another way of saying, at the time, that full disclosure might have harmed your chances in the election? But I am making full disclosure right now, with you... and you're still telling that I don't want to make it. My question was about how you reacted to the original story. It was a reaction of outrage... When I reacted to that, I wasn't bothered about being asked about my assets. I was bothered that you put into play a relative of Simon Busuttil... who had nothing to do with my assets. The person referred to was Eucharist Bajada, who is your business partner... He isn't. Why don't you want the truth? If you hold a 1% share as a lawyer – from 24 years ago, when there was a requirement that you couldn't have one shareholder, there had to be at least two – all lawyers who set up companies (or Interview By Raphael Vassallo maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 AUGUST 2017 To be in politics is 'to serve'