Fisheries junior minister Alicia Bugeja Sant has insisted she has “no conflict of interest” after it emerged a third of her campaign spending came from donations from key industry players.

Times of Malta reported on Tuesday that Bugeja Said received over €6,000 from industry giants Azzopardi Fisheries as well as from fish farm operators Malta Fish Farming and fish sellers Frutti Di Mare. Before becoming a Labour candidate, the junior minister had served as a director of the fisheries department.

“I have no conflict of interest,” she said.

“What I received as donations was all legal and I declared everything as required by law in a very public and transparent way.

“I ask the people to now judge me based on the work that I will be doing in this important sector in the next five years,” Bugeja Said added when questioned outside parliament yesterday.

Pressed to say whether she believes the donations might have been inappropriate given they came from key players in the industry she is now responsible for, Bugeja Said repeated she had “declared everything as required by the law”.

“Again, I ask the public to judge me on the work that I will be carrying out in the sector in the coming years,” she said before walking off.

Bugeja Said was appointed a parliamentary secretary after she made it to parliament through the newly introduced gender corrective mechanism, aimed at boosting the number of female MPs.

She is responsible for fisheries, aquaculture and animal rights within the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights.

 

 

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