Is the Labour Party bankrupt?

Published: April 7, 2008 at 9:30pm

Piggy bank

When the Irrevocably Resigned leader of the Labour Party got a bee in his bonnet about something, you could tell it was a personal bugbear and his constant banging on about the subject was a form of catharsis. Hence corruption (he was president of the Labour Party in the mid-1980s, when both party and government were at their most corrupt) and the hofra (the Labour Party was seriously in debt back then and matters have deteriorated further).

Now, to all intents and purposes the Labour Party is bankrupt. A state of bankruptcy occurs when you owe more money than you can ever hope to pay back. Rumours about Labour’s horrendous debts are rife, and now here comes Anna Mallia to state as fact that those debts are in seven figures.

The new leader will have a tough job to try and put the accounts of the party in order; to audit how and why the party is in debt for more than Lm3 million.

Anna Mallia, Malta Today, yesterday

I know it’s difficult, but I wish people would make a little bit more of an effort to think in terms of euros. So according to Anna Mallia, the Labour Party owes €7 million or thereabouts.

How is it going to pay back that kind of money, given how it insists with us that it depends for survival on flus minghand iz-zghir? When Price Club collapsed, that was roughly the amount of its debt.

But there are too many vested interests in keeping a political party shored up way beyond the point of bankruptcy. I can’t see the banks foreclosing and forcing the sale of the Mile End Glasshouse (prime piece of property, there) or private suppliers suing for payment. I have to say it would be interesting if that happens, given that it is about the only thing that will force the Labour Party to rise anew from the ashes minus that parade of freaks and dinosaurs.

It’s amazing that 140,000+ people believe the Labour Party when it says that it would manage this country much better financially than the Nationalist government does. How can it be trusted to do this when it can’t even put its own house in order? When the Labour Party says that it can cut Malta’s deficit when its own deficit has taken on a life of its own, the only possible response is loud laughter.




15 Comments Comment

  1. David Zammit says:

    …..maybe cause the PN has greater debts?

  2. Ivan M says:

    As far as I know the PN publishes its accounts annualy, and therefore leaves no room for speculation. I stand to be corrected.

    [Moderator – You’re right. The Labour Party famously refuses to publish its accounts, preferring to pay the fine for not doing so (about 50c a day).]

  3. Vanni says:

    How can a company not publish its accounts? What is the Registrar Of Companies doing about it? Are the fines being submitted for payment to the officers of the companies (and are they being settled???), or are they being waved as the owner is a political party? If they are being waved or reduced, will this policy be practised across the board, or will it just benefit politicians who are directors? And 50c does not sound very prohibitive. Why should any company bother to submit its books when the directors are only liable to 50c per day?
    The ROC will probably hide behind confidentiality on the matter, but I wonder if any officer of a company reading would confirm that the fine incurred daily stands at a measly 50c for him as well.
    BTW, if one preaches honesty in dealings, than how can one reconcile the fact that he does not apply them to his own house? The failure to publish accts is a clear breach of the law. Are therefore in the eyes of the MLP, all companies to be exempt from publishing acts?

  4. Well… declaring a deficit of such figures as you quoted is pretty embarrasing, from a party who claims they would do a better job of generating revenue than the present government is doing, what?

  5. eve says:

    Tal-MLP(Malta Losers’ Party) kienu qalu li s-slogan tal-PN ‘Finanzi fis-Sod’ kien biss biex jinganna l-poplu – tghid ghax ghandhom l-esklusivita’ tieghu huma, minn kif jidher car mill-artiklu t’hawn fuq?

  6. Herbie says:

    In the 70’s the Nationalist Party press owed some Lm5000 to the Banks and they did threaten foreclosure unless the debts were repaid within one week. George Bonello Dupuis the treasurer of the PN at the time managed to collect the money- il-ftit mil hafna- in a short time to get the Banks, which incidentally at the time had the Government as the major share holder, off the PN’s back.

  7. Meerkat :) says:

    yes it is bankrupt…of ideas

  8. Meerkat :) says:

    lemme add one CRUCIAL word to my last post…

    yes, it is bankrupt …of GOOD ideas

  9. john says:

    what abbout the 300 000 maltese liri that the bical gaveto the nationalist party in 1972. at tha time the weekly wage of a maltese women was just LM3 weekly.

  10. john says:

    do u not find it strange that each time a new hospital is built in malta then Pn built a new headquarters? The first nationalist headquarters built at Pieta was built after money suppost to be spent in gozo hospital was give to the pn for the new headquarters. the amount at tht time was LM5000. thats why all gov projects under the pn are always over the budget allocated. Can we be sure that money supposed spent on Mater dei was not diverted to the new pn headquarters????????????

    [Moderator – John, you are suggesting that Nationalist officials embezzled government funds. I don’t think anyone has ever made such a claim.]

  11. Vanni says:

    John
    In your place I would really think twice before mentioning BICAL. That was one of the greatest swindles ever in Malta. I suggest you read here first:
    http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2003/bical.html

    Re your hospital claim, well it is a nice claim, but then so are the sightings of Elvis.

    “why all gov projects under the pn are always over the budget”
    You mean similar to the way the Qawra promenade was over the budget? Hang on wasn’t that the only project which was (and let me say it was badly needed) constructed by Sant?

  12. Gerald Fenech says:

    The power of incumbency John. U tinsiex, ‘flimkien kollox possibbli’ :)

  13. Alexander the not so great says:

    Yeah… that is why Jaysin tal-Qsari could not understand the question put to him by a woman on Xarabank….

    She asked him why MLP is not keen to publish the yearly Accounts and instead prefer to pay the fine.

    Do anyone recall his answer?? He replied : “what account mrs?” he he he

  14. john says:

    hi gerald

    about how money supposed to be spent on the gozo hospital and ended building part of the PN pieta headquarters, a british minister and a certain my poulson ended in prison
    so my accusations are based on facts not on fantasy

    about mater dei the first STIMA UFFICJALI

    was 25 million maltese liri
    when alfred sant increased the beds from 400 to 1000 to be the same bed level like st lukes
    the new np goverment in 1998 reduce the bed rate from 1000 to 800

    according to in nazzjon this was done so the goverment JIFFRANKA 20 million maltese liri

    and it cost 80 million instead of 100 million
    so now we have a new hospital
    smaller than st lukes
    that ended costing to the maltese taxpayers only 300 millions maltese liri

    i am sure u r one of those lucky guys that saw mater dei on the opening day so u havent had the need to wait 8 hours waiting in casualty just to fine u an empty bed

  15. john says:

    hi gerald

    about the bical and the missing money
    why should a bank donate and give LM300,000 liri to a party which couple of weeks/months ended in opposition????
    it took about thirty years now for the story to came out
    maybe in 2038 that is thirty years from now we can hear some new story about how the money spend on mater dei, not the suppost 25 million but those 300 million if they ended all in the new hospital or in some party headquarters

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