Within this context, the underlying and unwritten constitution of our power structures remains unregulated and fundamentally vulnerable to corruption. Political parties are only in small part, funded by the State. The bulk of their resources is obtained from private funding. Private funding of political parties is a reflection of free expression but the poor regulation and oversight that exists forces parties into dependent relationships with their contributors.
A peculiar local feature of the money that big business donates to political parties is that it is rarely motivated ideologically or even in support of any programmatic consideration to speak of. Business magnates claim that they donate “equally” to both political parties, making their payments more like an informal tax or protection money than the free expression of political opinion.
Sandro Chetcuti, head of the Malta Developers’ Association, testified to this Inquiry that he donates to both parties “in equal measure,”25 while Nazzareno Vassallo, one of Malta’s major contractors, declared that “for the past 40 years I’ve been asked for donations by both parties and I helped both equally.”26 Within this scenario, it is difficult not to consider such ‘donations’ as investments or loans that must be repaid with considerable interest, naturally funded by the taxpayer.
This is also the case in the personal relationships between individual candidates for public office and their private funders. Parliamentary candidates have no public funding whatsoever and depend on their own personal wealth or contributions made by donors in a grey poorly regulated system that is not overseen in any material sense by any independent agency.
Corruption is entrenched in the very foundations of our democratic system and fundamental reform will require decision-makers (Parliamentarians) to re-examine the very existence of the system that has given them political power.