PD repeats calls for Auditor General to investigate VGH deal
Partit Demokratiku has reiterated its calls for the auditor general to investigate the Vitalis Global Healthcare (VGH) deal.
It called on the auditor general to investigate the handling of the original deal and the actual transfer from Vitals Global Healthcare to Steward Health Care.
Partit Demokratiku yesterday wrote to the Public Accounts Committee chairman:
“We wish to bring to your attention that as parliamentary representatives of PD, we support the request addressed to the Public Accounts Committee by PN deputy leader for parliamentary affairs David Aguis to investigate the sale of the concession to Vitals Global Healthcare.
“The article in the Times of Malta on 21 January 2018 refers, again, to a claim that the government signed a memorandum of understanding with the investors (namely Oxley Capital) six months before the actual call for expressions of interest/bids was issued.”
Partit Demokratiku notes that if the claims in the news article are true, then “this concession falls foul of public procurement rules in services. A memorandum of understanding, even if not legally binding, was signed before the actual public call giving the concessionaire/operator an unfair advantage over other potential bidders. As a result, the state may not have got the best price/deal in the absence of a true competitive process. It is also likely that in the absence of a competitive bidding process, the deal breaches state aid rules.”
“Partit Demokratiku notes that this is not quite a case of privatisation – unlike, for example, that of the ship-yards – but a ‘service contract’. Public procurement rules for such contracts, especially the one concerning Gozo General Hospital and Karin Grech Hospital, which are required to continue providing services of general interest, denote bad governance. May we also take this opportunity to remind you that last September we asked you to put forward a request to this same office to investigate the recent Smart City ordeal.”