PN formally requests Auditor General to investigate sale of concession by VGH

The Nationalist Party has formally submitted a request for the auditor-general to investigate the transfer of three state hospital first to Vitals Global Healthcare and now to Steward Healthcare.

During the previous legislature, under then-Health Minister Konrad Mizzi, a public-private partnership deal included a concession to Vitals Global Healthcare for the running of Karen Grech Hospital, St Luke’s Hospital and Gozo General Hospital. Weeks ago, it was revealed that Vitals Global Healthcare had sold the concession to a third company, Steward Healthcare.

The choice of Vitals had initially raised serious concerns over its non-existent experience in health care and the fact that the ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) behind the company remained a mystery. Steward Healthcare, on the other hand, has a long and successful track record in the US.

Addressing a press conference yesterday, PN deputy leader for parliamentary affairs David Agius said that the request would be made through the House Public Accounts Committee.

Also addressing the conference, PN MP Beppe Fenech Adami stressed the fact that millions in taxpayer money were spent without the public benefiting. He reminded members of the press that last December a request for €17.8 million in payments to Vitals over and above its 2017 allocated budget was approved by Parliament.

He said that the government praising Steward Healthcare for its track record is confirmation that the Opposition was right to be concerned about Vitals Global Healthcare.

Fenech Adami continued to say that the issue was that Vitals had received millions to upgrade and begin operations at the three hospitals, and it received further millions from the sale of the concession off the back of the Maltese public.

Agius stressed that the public has a right to know how its money is being spent and where exactly it is going.

The MPs renewed calls for the issue to be debated in the parliamentary health committee so that witnesses maybe called and a more thorough debate can occur.

Labour Party reaction

The government was first to call on the auditor-general to investigate the contract which led to the public-private partnership of three state hospitals, the Labour Party said in a statement issued in response to the PN press conference.

It stressed that the deal did not privatise the three hospitals – Karen Grech Hospital, St Luke’s Hospital and Gozo General Hospital – but it was in fact a “publicprivate partnership.”

“However, in its [the PN’s] efforts to be negative, the Opposition wound up asking what the government already asked for one year ago,” the PL said in its statement.

The PL stressed that it was Health Minister Chris Fearne, in December 2016, who had asked the auditor-general to investigate the agreement, “since this government has nothing to get upset about.”