A debate should be held in parliament as it is vital that we investigate VGH - PD

In a statement Partit Demokratiku welcomed the fact that there is agreement that there should be a debate regarding the Vitals Global Healthcare-Steward Healthcare deal. It also agrees with the government’s position that this should be held in a plenary sitting of the House so that all members of parliament will be able to have their say on what is still a very obscure issue and not in a permanent parliamentary committee.

PD also agrees with the PN’s stand that there should be an opportunity for witnesses to be called and an investigation instigated in the VGH concession.

“We do believe that there is a better forum for this and call for the Auditor General’s Office to use the powers given to it by the constitution to investigate fully the PPP contract between Vitals and the Government of Malta for the following reasons.”

It is evident that VGH did not honour the agreement and has failed to meet the deadlines set within that agreement. Therefore, the agreement should be considered null and void.

If the agreement had not been honoured, we do not consider it right or good practice that VGH should have been allowed to sell on the concession to another company. The government should have taken over that role and any profit made in the sale of the concession should have been put back into the public purse. We need to know why this was not the case.

The contents of Gozo general Hospital, Karin Grech Hospital and St. Luke’s Hospital were all sold for the token sum of 1 Euro. The sale of assets for one monetary unit is common practice when a bankrupt company which is about to be dissolved is sold onto another buyer. As far as we know the Department of Health and the Government of Malta are neither bankrupt nor about to be dissolved. It is certain that the assets of these three hospitals are worth far more than 1 Euro. It is also evident that this part of the agreement was redacted in the version presented to parliament. Again, we need to know why.

We have yet to see any evidence whatsoever that VGH invested one cent of its own money into upgrading the facilities conceded to it. It is increasingly evident that the money spent was recycled government funds paid to it for services it had or was meant to have rendered. If the investment so far made was funded by the public then should not a value be put on that investment and should not the government demand that sum to be paid back by VGH? After all that investment has increased the cost of the concession paid by Steward healthcare to VGH.

The VGH-Government of Malta agreement is an example of how not to handle a Private Public Partnership concession.