Published on Sunday, 22, January, 2012 at 17:38 in Malta News

http://gozonews.com/21584/malta-should-do-away-with-political-money-laundering-ad/

In reaction to Franco Debono’s presentation of a private member’s bill on party financing reform, Michael Briguglio, AD Chairperson, said, “AD has been speaking on the need of party financing reform since 1989, and we submitted our latest proposals to previous speaker Louis Galea back in 2008, which were ignored by the PNPL duopoly, which are both benefiting from political money laundering.”

Ralph Cassar, AD General Secretary, said, “The information coming out from PN by insiders confirms that the party is controlled by moneyed interests and that its recent secretary general was also consultant for a construction magnate seeking to build a cement plant. The conflicts of interest and the acceptance of this state of affairs by the party leadership is astounding and speaks volumes about the state of Maltese politics.”

“Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party believes that donations in excess of Euro 5,000 – irrespective of where they come from – should be declared by political parties and those over Euro 40,000 should be made illegal.”

“One should also keep in mind that commercial companies, both private ones and those owned by the political parties, donate money to the parties without any control of any sort.”