Malta’s main political parties regularly harass developers for financial donations, Malta Developers Association chief Sandro Chetcuti has revealed. 

“It is the political parties who constantly come to us for money. Political parties are constantly nagging us for donations, they organise marathons and send people to collect money,” Chetcuti said in an interview on Times of Malta.

“Sometimes it feels like harassment. Some business people get embarrassed by their persistence.”

Chetcuti revealed that political parties reached out to developers every two months, but insisted that the donations do not act as informal bribes. He claimed that corrupt deals do not involve MDA members. 

Still, he believed that political parties should transform to a state-funded model to prevent conflicts like these from arising. 

The issue is nothing new, with many Maltese regularly criticising both PN and PL for the closeness to big business, in particular the construction lobby. Chetcuti has admitted before that he does donate to both parties. 

In 2017, then-leader Simon Busuttil courted controversy over payment made by db Group’s Silvio Debono to Media.Link. Debono. The company, who demanded the party return the fees after criticism of the ITS project,  claimed that the payments were used to cover the salaries of both the secretary-general and the party’s CEO.

Chetcuti also weighed in Malta’s over development issues, rubbishing concerns over modern design aesthetic, or lack thereof, insisting that people had a right to develop their properties, stressing that the real issue lies with planning.