The Nationalist Party should have done its own due diligence investigations on candidates

I think it is appalling – quite beyond belief, really – that the Nationalist Party, which is supposed to have some kind of committee to examine the suitability of potential electoral candidates, didn’t even bother to conduct any kind of due diligence exercise on the potential contenders for the party leadership.

All it did was ask them for some kind of declaration, entirely voluntary. Are they insane, or completely negligent? That declaration form was the equivalent of those forms they give you to fill in when you’re about to enter the United States: “Are you, or have you ever been, a member of a Community party? Are you, or have you ever been, a member of a terrorist organisation?”

Nobody answers Yes to those things. Why would they?

If individuals put themselves forward for the party leadership, then people are going to vote for them. You can’t leave it up to the democratic vote to weed out frauds with millions in debt or who launder money for prostitution rackets. That’s not how things work. First you investigate the potential candidates or contenders thoroughly, and then you present them for the vote, if they are not found wanting.

A political party is like a brand. People rely on the knowledge that whatever is sold under the brand has passed through quality control. And so they can buy it/vote for it in confidence that it has passed muster. A serious political party should not allow individuals to stand for election on its ticket unless they have been thoroughly scrutinised, let alone allow contenders into a leadership race who have not been examined at all.

The fact that Frank Portelli owes HSBC Bank €12 million was not concealed. It was right there, in the Government Gazette: he didn’t pay the bank, the bank sued him and obtained a judgement from the Courts of Justice confirming that yes, he does owe the bank €12 million. This is not a matter of opinion. It is not “an allegation”. It is not, as The Sunday Times said today in a report on the assets and liabilities of the four contenders, “a story written by Daphne Caruana Galizia”. It is a court judgement, making Frank Portelli’s €12 million debt to HSBC Bank a cast-iron fact.

I’ll admit that finding out about the deed of constitution of debt with HSBC bank that makes Adrian Delia personally – not in the name of a company, but personally, as a surety – liable for €7.2 million in debt with the bank would have been more difficult. Dr Delia fully intended to keep it hidden, and he would have succeeded because that particular deed did not have to be officially registered and would not have come up in notarial searches at the registry. But once it was reported, and the deed reproduced on this website, action should have been taken.

You cannot have an Opposition leader on whom Malta’s largest bank might foreclose at any time for the amount of €7.2 million. Action should have been taken simply on the basis that Dr Delia refused to make a declaration of assets and liabilities, because he faced a choice between declaring this to the party administration and its leadership voter-base or lying about it.

Proper due diligence over a civilised length of time, rather than the mad rush-job of this leadership election, would also have uncovered the fact that Dr Delia’s personal bank account – a bank account in your personal name is a personal bank account – was used to process the money from a Soho prostitution racket. How does the Nationalist Party think I found out about that? It was staring at them in the face: there was somebody posting comments beneath several news stories about Adrian Delia who clearly knew something very important about him and longed to say what it was. Because of who this person was, I took it seriously – and got the story.

I got the story as a journalist, but if the Nationalist Party had its head screwed on right, it would have picked up what I picked up and got the information for its own due diligence investigation and the party’s own safety.

What sort of political party allows a man who was taken to court by HSBC Bank for the Eur12 million he owes it, to stand for election as party leader?