Glancing over the declarations of assets MPs filed this year raises some questions. Times of Malta sought some answers.

Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli has explained how her bank deposits jumped from €53,000 in 2018 to €189,000 last year, without any visible asset sales to explain the increase.

Contacted about the spike after Times of Malta reviewed her annual financial declaration to parliament, Farrugia Portelli explained that her parents had decided to pass on her inheritance while they were still alive.

Julia Farrugia Portelli. Photo: DOI/Jason Borg

Farrugia Portelli showed Times of Malta a notarised copy of the agreement as well as further proof of the source of funds.

As in previous years, the quality of financial reporting by MPs continued to vary.

The MP code of ethics, which dates back to 1995, states they should declare shares in companies and investments, including money deposited in banks and any other form of pecuniary interest.

While a few MPs even attach copies of their bank balances, others simply scribble a figure in a handwritten form.

Former minister Konrad Mizzi, who has in past filings declared having a bank loan of around €300,000, did not declare any loan in this year’s filing.

Asked if this meant the loan had been paid off, Mizzi told Times of Malta that the parliamentary form does not include any section requesting the loan balances to be included.

“However, please note that the loan is still outstanding and being paid in accordance with loan repayment programme.”

Transport Minister Ian Borg similarly acknowledged that he omitted his loan balance this year, despite having declared it in previous submissions to parliament.

He too pointed out that the form filled in by MPs does not ask them to write down their commitments and loans, unlike a separate filing ministers and parliamentary secretaries have to make to the Cabinet Office.

Ian Borg.

Borg said he forgot that in previous years he had listed his loan balance in the parliament filings too.

The minister updated his filing after having been contacted, declaring an outstanding loan of €309,000 taken out on his matrimonial home.

Former prime minister Joseph Muscat similarly decided not to list down a loan balance that he listed in his asset declaration to the Cabinet Office.

Asked if this meant the €120,000 loan previously declared had been paid off, Muscat said the loan was still outstanding with monthly repayments as per 2018.

Parliament does not allow journalists or members of the public to take copies or photographs of the declarations.

The Commissioner for Standards had retained an auditor to contribute to the examination and verification of the declarations of assets and interests that are submitted by ministers, parliamentary secretaries and MPs.