Our heavily redacted hospital contracts

In 2015, then Health Minister Konrad Mizzi gave a concession for the running of three of our hospitals, St Luke’s Karen Grech and Craig Hospital in Gozo to a company called Vitals Global Healthcare for a sum of €70 million per year for 30 years (extended

This company had no previous experience in the running of healthcare services or hospitals. First supercilious movement. Recently, we heard that Vitals transferred its concession to Steward Healthcare for the paltry sum of €1! Second supercilious movement. Vitals’ shareholders used Jersey based offshore companies to fund a €5 million takeover of a medical supply company, Technoline, for these hospitals. This means that they pocket funds from two sources. I believe this is called insider trading and is illegal in EU and Maltese law. Third supercilious movement. Vitals’ secret owners used a front-prop who was the ex-marketing manager of the company through his own company Gateway Solutions Ltd to do this, with a secret option of converting the loan into shares and stage a takeover whenever they wanted. Fourth supercilious movement. Technoline get exclusivity of supply, with all purchases of medical equipment going through them, in a democratic country where free competition by tenders is supposed to be a fair way of distributing resources meant for public entities. The hospitals are still nominally ours after all. Fifth supercilious movement. There seems to be a relational link between Technoline and Nexia BT! Sixth supercilious movement. Not much has happened in these hospitals over the years to show any meat for the investment made. Seventh supercilious movement. I think enough facts have been given to lead one to understand that if ever there ever was a shady deal, here it was lock, stock and barrel. A deal with all the potential elements to line certain individuals pockets with kickbacks! The fact that the same people involved in sourcing out the ElectroGas deal, flagged as having unusual and irregular processes and guarantees given by the National Audit Office, are here again co-involved and this is a source of great concern for all the people of these islands. It is reported that the present Health Minister, Chris Fearne, does not like this hanky-panky by the company and wishes to rescind the monopoly by Tech- noline. This leads one to question how this deal was done in the first place as well as remind Mr Fearne that as a member of the Cabinet he has collective responsibility for the done deal. He can mitigate this by making public who was responsible for these undemocratic dealings and see that the money siphoned off the Maltese taxpayer is recovered. The Leader of the Opposition Dr Adrian Delia has opened a court case to have the entire deal rescinded as it should be. A few weeks ago, PN MEP Roberta Metsola stated that in Malta people have become immune to the shady dealings going on around them, even when it is obvious from the facts that something is seriously wrong. This does say a lot about our national character where people are always open to ways to make an extra buck under the counter. I doubt however whether this will go on much longer as people start to get fed up after a while seeing things done in a corrupt way. I believe however that we in the PN Opposition are partly to blame for this state of affairs. People want to look up and see a united opposition to the corrupt government we have, but all they see is constant bickering and certain PN MPs providing the perfect smokescreen for individuals in the government to get away with their dirty dealings. We provide the perfect alibi for this government’s mismanagement as we do not allow people to focus and see things for what they are, with all the distractions we create. The PN debacle precipitated by some people who should know better during the Christmas period, just because the Leader of the Opposition had a familial dispute and ended up in court for separation proceeding, was a case in point. As if this was the first time this has happened and as if all MPs are living in familial bliss. My experience as a doctor and the advice given by my wife of 30 years, who is a marriage counsellor, teach me to take a step back in these cases as there are several issues and circumstances that are not visible to us outsiders and only a court can settle the complex issue once an issue gets there. Social media news, comments and fake news did not help and ended up having in effect, a trial by social media. I believe that we need to get behind the leader of the party who is democratically elected and pull on the same rope. Otherwise, we will be providing an escape route for the government and simply wasting the time and energy of all of us. Those who think that playing double jeopardy to scupper the PNs chances by these tactics are not only letting all of us down but also do not realise that there might not be a PN to pick up after they have shattered it with their puny legal and shortsighted games. The only way forward is for the whole party to move ahead together and focus on political opponents so that we astound them and provide an alternate government when this government’s 10year stint is up and people are fed up with it. So away with our pride, with our grand entitlements, legalisms and prejudices and let us focus deeply on the political price, with the proper motive of course. A motive to provide a good and fair government for our people, a government we all deserve. Otherwise, it is all simply a waste of time and energy!