Dar tal-Providenza has requested further documentation over a €500,000 donation pledge fronted by former Opposition leader Adrian Delia on behalf of a Tunisian-based trading group.
On the back of a funding drive on Friday that saw over €2.5 million being raised, Dar tal-Providenza said in a statement that cash donations above €5,000 and pledges above €10,000 from individuals and companies were subject to a vetting process.
As part of this process, the organisation said it had requested further documentation following the €500,000 pledge by Catco Group Capital Investment.
"Id-Dar tal-Providenza does not only rely on documentation provided but conducts its own verification process before accepting such donations. Acceptance of the donation is subject to the internal verification process", the statement said.
Catco Group was recently announced as the new sponsors of the Sliema Wanderers football club.
Tunisia, where the group is based, was only last year removed from the EU's list of countries that pose a risk to the financial system due to money-laundering and terrorism financing risks.
The group describes itself as a player in the oil, gas and automotive industry in the Middle East, Africa, and the Gulf States.
Catco Group's sponsorship of Sliema Wanderers saw the company's chairman Fisal Abdullah Alokla also being made chairman of the football club.
Delia on Friday thanked the club's president Jeffrey Farrugia for introducing him to the group.
He said he had been working continuously over the past weeks on the funding initiative.
The former Opposition leader, who is still a PN MP, promised that structures would be put in place to ensure that Catco Group's donation to Dar tal-Providenza would become a recurring one.
Prior to the headline-grabbing 500k donation pledge, Delia donated €22,775 to Dar tal-Providenza raised by his "team".
Delia was ousted from the PN's leadership role last year shortly after Times of Malta revealed he continued to entertain communication with murder suspect Yorgen Fenech even after it was known that the Tumas magnate owned 17 Black.
The PN MP has faced accusations, which he denies, of receiving cash sums from Fenech in an alleged bid to thwart MEP David Casa's re-election hopes in 2019.