‘The Most Important Anti-Corruption Regulation In Malta’: Franco Debono Says About Party Financing Laws
Criminal lawyer and former Nationalist MP Franco Debono has defended Malta’s current party-financing law, calling it the “most important anti-corruption” regulation on the island.
Debono was responding to the headline of an opinion piece written by former Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer titled “Ban private donations to political parties”.
In the article – which Debono explained he did not read – Engerer argued that Malta’s political parties should not be financed by rich, private corporations but instead should rely on state funds. The current system, he explained, paves the way for policies driven by economic greed rather than the public good. In Malta’s case, this has contributed to the erosion of environmental integrity since the development industry is such a huge lobby group that finances both parties.
Debono made nine points to make his case, arguing that the Party Financing Law is the biggest contribution he’s made to the country having campaigned for it, wrote it, and presented it to parliament himself.
He explained that both the Nationalist Party and investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia were against this proposal but “now, if there is a law that combats corruption, it’s this law”, according to Debono.
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“For everyone to understand, this is the biggest law against bribery. It is a law that regulates how much money you can throw into the pockets of politicians and parties and how and in what way.”
The main crux of the lawyer’s argument is that first, the parties must prove that they are reliable by complying with the current law that regulates donations to parties and requires transparency. Until they are in compliance with this law, public funding should not be considered, otherwise, there is a risk that money from taxes will be misappropriated.
He said that private funding should never be omitted, just regulated which it already is.
“The parties should not rely on the ‘relief’ given by the state, but they should ‘work’ not only to get the votes but also to get funding according to the law.”
Do you think the party financing laws should be changed?
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