The Nationalist Party on Wednesday denied that its debt has risen to €34 million, although it admitted that it runs into millions of euro. 

The €34m figure was reported by Malta Today, which cited an anonymous party official saying that the mountain of debt was making it difficult for the party to find a treasurer. 

"Whilst the amount due runs into millions, this amount is far less than the amount being quoted. The debt which accumulated over the years has since been reduced year on year following a refinancing plan. To date, all repayments as per agreements are being adhered to and the party has no financial difficulty to continue to meet its financial obligations," the PN said. 

It said it wanted to assure all those who had lent it money that it "has no problems at all" in meeting its obligations.  

The Cedoli scheme, where party members were invited to lend money to the party, was a success since day one "and the scheme has continued to gather support," it said.

The party also denied claims that its media arm made a loss of €2m last year. It said Media.Link is following a restructuring plan and reducing losses each year while moving fast towards break-even.

The party insisted that its assets are more than sufficient to cover all outstanding liabilities. 

Party finding it difficult to appoint a treasurer

The post of party treasurer is one of five key PN posts which party reform chief Louis Galea has said should come under “new leadership”. 

Arguably the most weighty of those posts – that of general secretary – will be filled in the interim by party veteran Francis Zammit Dimech. The other four vacancies will only be filled once party reforms are enacted, party leader Adrian Delia said early on Wednesday morning, following a late-night meeting to elect Dr Zammit Dimech. 

The PN has cycled through a number of treasurers over the past year. David Camilleri quit the post last June amid party infighting over a vacant seat in parliament. https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/pn-treasurer-quits-following-co-option-vote-controversy.711815 

He was replaced by Antoine Zammit, who quit after just a few months after Labour media branch One dug up an old YouTube video of Mr Zammit, who runs an IPTV business, seeking help to access porn channels on an IPTV service. 

Party deputy leader Robert Arrigo took over treasury duties following Mr Zammit’s resignation. Mr Arrigo has announced he plans to resign.  

Former officials also deny report

Former Nationalist Party treasurer David Camilleri also denied that the party’s debts had accumulated to €34 million.

In a Facebook post, Mr Camilleri, who served as party treasurer between 2017 and June last year said that the MaltaToday story, which he insisted was a complete fabrication, was only meant to fuel alarm and harm the party.

Though he declined to give any figures, he said that in recent years efforts had been made to address the party’s huge debt, pay employees on time and keep expenditure under control.  

Another denial was issued by former Net TV CEO Pierre Portelli who also left in June last year.

“When I left for political reasons, the financial situation before the finance feam was much different from that being given in the story,” he said on Facebook.
According to Mr Portelli in 2018 Net TV had managed to cut its losses by almost €500,000 while downsizing its workforce to reduce costs.  In the meantime, the party was honouring all of its obligations, he said. 

“While I understand that in the second half of last year the party and its media still had some bills related to the huge expenses incurred to organise the campaigns of the council and European Parliament elections, I can never believe the debt exploded as claimed in this story,” he said. 

Mr Portelli said this was another attack aimed to destroy the Opposition with the ultimate objective of deflecting attention from the rife abuses going on in the country.