Prime Minister Robert Abela has vowed to address the Labour Party’s failure to file official accounts of their media wing for more than a decade.

“We were very busy these last five months. It’s no excuse, but we were working practically 24/7 to get out of this pandemic successfully,” Abela told Lovin Malta, insisting that several items put on the back burner will be released.

Both the Nationalist Party’s Media.Link and the Labour Party’s One Productions have failed to submit an official report of their end of year accounts to the Malta Business Registry (formerly under the MFSA) for a number of years.

The last accounts filed for One Productions are in 2010. Sources have claimed that the company is mired in financial difficulty.

Companies are obliged to keep proper accounting records and to deliver a copy of their annual accounts, along with an auditors’ and directors’ report, every single year. The maximum penalties for failing to submit the account are €2,329.37 annually and €46.59 per day. It is the registrar who decides the fine.

Publishing accountancy records provide crucial information to shareholders and the public, while also guaranteeing a small degree of financial transparency. It would be even more important for political parties to do so given the vested interest of powerful lobby groups and wealthy benefactors.

The PN, who last filed accounts in 2004, said that Media.Link is “currently carrying out an active exercise to bring its financial statements up to date and once the exercise is completed will file with the Malta Business Registry”.

Why do you think is behind the massive delay?