Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1414808
4 NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 29 SEPTEMBER 2021 NEWS KARL AZZOPARDI ADRIAN Delia tore into a court document presented by Steward Healthcare on Monday to justify what is supposedly a €60 million investment in the three hospitals they run. The Nationalist MP and for- mer party leader said rather than acceded to a request for a site visit to see the investment un- dertaken by the company as part of its congtractual commitment, the company submitted a docu- ment with photos depicting 'be- fore and after'. Delia was addressing a press conference at PN headquarters with party health spokesperson Stephen Spiteri on the morrow of another sitting in the court case he had filed to have the hos- pitals concession deal rescinded. Delia insisted the deal, origin- ially reached with Vitals, an ob- scure company with no medical history, was vitiated and gov- ernment should pull the plug. Vitals failed to live up to its com- mitment to invest in the Gozo General Hospital, St Luke's and Karen Grech, and the conces- sion was eventually transferred to American company Steward Healthcare. The Vitals hospitals deal is based on "collusion" and should be terminated immediately, Delia said on Tuesday. "Court sittings have clearly shown that there was collusion when the tender was awarded," he added. On Monday, the Vitals legal team presented a document with photos that supposedly show where the €60 million in- vestment went. The document, which was uploaded on the MP's Facebook page on Mon- day, made reference to toilets, a chapel door, a security room and other minor investments. Delia cast doubt on the true val- ue of these works. "I doubt they spent one tenth of the declared €60 million, and the biggest issue remains that not a single receipt was presented in court." He said there was no need for an evaluation board, when the Auditor General report on the concession agreement showed the "clear wrong doing" from those involved in the deal. "We need better management of public funds," Delia said. Asked whether a future PN government would tear-up the agreement, or wait for the ver- dict on the court case opened by him, Delia said "it should be this government who should stop the deal". "If there was collusion in the deal, the legally binding agree- ments that came afterwards do not stand," he said. "It should be this PM who stops the deal." Delia's t-shirt saga Adrian Delia played down a question on the reprimand he received from Bernard Grech over his canvassers' show of force during the Independence Day celebrations. "If someone thinks I will quar- rel with my leader over some t-shirts does not know how pol- itics works," he said. "It's funny to see ONE News more focused on gimmicks rather than the real issue at hand." He insisted the relationship between him and Grech is good, and that they speak regularly. Tear up Vitals hospitals contract, Adrian Delia tells government Nationalist MPs Stephen Spiteri (left) and Adrian Delia