Bed and breakfast and the PN’s balance sheet

Alex Borg has been making a song and dance that the PN has submitted its financial accounts to the Electoral Commission on December 15. Now is it not strange that these accounts were signed by their auditor on October 31 and they waited 45 days to submit them, when the law specifies that accounts need to be submitted by the end of April?

Why wait so long? Why did Borg’s officials, such as Sabine Agius Cabourdin, when questioned on the media, refuse to state that the accounts were ready and signed? A cursory analysis of these accounts reveals why they waited so close to the Christmas break to publish. The accounts raise more questions than answers.

Let us start by the first fact. Why, when asked, was the PN so afraid of revealing who the auditor of these accounts is? If one looks at the Registry of Companies, one finds that the accountant’s firm was registered on September 3 of this year, just three days before the appointment of Borg as PN leader. Somehow this accountant, with a firm with a registered address in Nadur, signed the PN accounts at the other end of the islands, in Marsaxlokk.

Another mystery is that the same address where his accountancy firm is established, 16, Triq id-Duru, Nadur, is the same one as the boutique hotel Sea Holly. As they say, proper auditing should come with bed and breakfast, and a nice view.

Then, the second fact. Charles Bonello, the PN general secretary, is on record stating that the PN’s debt amounts to €32.5 million. Then you look at these accounts, signed by him on page three and page four, and you find that the declared debt of the PN is €11.7 million. More than €20 million debt has disappeared.

The PN is saying that its accounts should not cover those of the entities they own. Yet, hidden on page 21, you find the net book value of Medialink Communications, one of the entities they own. And guess what its net liabilities are? A negative €18.5 million! They hid in a note what they should have included in the main page of their accounts.

The third fact is that Borg tells us that the PN has more assets than liabilities. If you look at page seven of the PN’s accounts, you find that they have €16.2 million worth of assets. Against that they have liabilities of €11.7 million.

So, their net assets are €4.5 million. However, I invite everyone to go to page 21, note 12, of the same accounts. There you find that the net book value of Medialink Communications is a negative €18.5 million.

The net book value of Medialink Communications is a negative €18.5 million

Do you know what that means? That the positive net book value of the PN is four times less than the negative book value of one of the companies owned by the PN.

The same accounts that Borg touts as evidence that the PN has more assets than liabilities show that the PN’s assets are €14 million less than their liabilities.

The first time the PN published its accounts was in 2016. Those accounts showed that its assets exceeded its liabilities by €7.3 million in 2015. By 2024, this had fallen to €4.5 million.

The negative position of Medialink Communications was €8.5 million in 2015. By 2024 it had gone €18.5 million into the red. So, in 2015, when the PN’s accounts were audited by KPMG, a firm that needs no introduction, the PN had net assets of €7.3 million, against net liabilities of Medialink of €8.5 million. So, they had a negative balance of €1.2 million.

By 2024, after four leaders who all claim that they strengthened the financial situation of the party, we are in a situation where the PN’s net assets are a mere €4.5 million, with which it must cover the net liabilities of €18.5 million of Medialink. A shortfall €1.2 million in assets has turned into a shortfall of €14 million in just 10 years.

Knowing this, you can understand why the PN had to visit a bed and breakfast to audit its accounts.

Which auditing firm of repute would condone such complete financial mismanagement?! The party that preaches fiscal conservatism and attacks the government on national debt has run itself into financial oblivion.

The one thing that Borg has focused on during his first 100 days was collecting money.

Let me make a small prediction. Get prepared for more in his next 365 days as their accounts show that, by the end of 2026, the PN will need to repay loans amounting to €3,851,693. All while financing the losses of Medialink, which, over the last 10 years, averaged €1 million a year.

I hope their crowdfunding platform stops crashing, as they are sure going to need it.

Glenn Bedingfield

Glenn Bedingfield is Parliamentary Secretariat for Public Cleanliness.