Malta’s two major political parties are defying the law obliging businesses to file audited accounts every year, with none of their companies publishing them in years.
Lovin Malta has already widely reported how ONE Productions Ltd and Media.Link, the media arms of PL and PN respectively, are several years late in filing their accounts.
ONE Productions last filed their accounts in 2010, while Media.Link last published theirs in 2005, and this for the year ending September 2003.
However, an analysis by The Shift News of Business Registry records has now found that this practice by PL and PN goes deeper than their media companies.
The PL’s six active companies are all late in filing their accounts, with their main company – MLP Holdings Ltd – last filing theirs way back in 2000.
Consultancy & Research Limited last filed theirs in 2002, Sound Vision Ltd last filed theirs in 2010 and Redtouch Fone Ltd (which had provided mobile telephony services) last filed theirs in 2012.
Although it is unclear whether these companies are still operating, they haven’t been struck off.
Sunrise Travel, the PL’s former travel agency, last filed their accounts in 2000, two years after it officially stopped operating.
The situation is similar with the Nationalist Party’s companies. Beyond Media.Link, the PN’s travel agency EuroTours hasn’t filed its accounts since 2010 and its new company, Resolve Company Ltd, last filed theirs in 2018.
Both Prime Minister Robert Abela and Opposition Leader Bernard Grech have acknowledged that their media companies haven’t filed their accounts in years and have repeatedly pledged to sort out the situation, but without giving any timelines.
However, recent political events have shone a spotlight on the political parties’ failure to abide by company law over the years.
Former PN MP David Thake resigned from Parliament in the wake of revelations that two of his companies were late in paying VAT and that one of them hadn’t filed its accounts in ten years.
Although it is unclear whether these companies are still operating, they haven’t been struck off.
Sunrise Travel, the PL’s former travel agency, last filed their accounts in 2000, two years after it officially stopped operating.
The situation is similar with the Nationalist Party’s companies. Beyond Media.Link, the PN’s travel agency EuroTours hasn’t filed its accounts since 2010 and its new company, Resolve Company Ltd, last filed theirs in 2018.
Both Prime Minister Robert Abela and Opposition Leader Bernard Grech have acknowledged that their media companies haven’t filed their accounts in years and have repeatedly pledged to sort out the situation, but without giving any timelines.
However, recent political events have shone a spotlight on the political parties’ failure to abide by company law over the years.
Former PN MP David Thake resigned from Parliament in the wake of revelations that two of his companies were late in paying VAT and that one of them hadn’t filed its accounts in ten years.