Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1499533
9 EDITORIAL BusinessToday is published every Thursday. The newspaper is a MediaToday publication and is distributed to all leading stationers, business and financial institutions and banks. MANAGING EDITOR: SAVIOUR BALZAN EDITOR: PAUL COCKS BusinessToday, MediaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN9016, Malta Newsroom email: bt@mediatoday.com.mt Advertising: afarrugia@mediatoday.com.mt Telephone: 00356 21 382741 18.5.2023 R evelations that former prime minister Joseph Muscat received consultancy payments from a Swiss firm with links to the original con- cessionaire of the hospitals contract are damaging. e latest journalistic investigation carried out by Times of Malta, OC- CRP, and e Shift, goes further than what had already been known about Muscat's consultancy job with the Swiss company Accutor. In the latest instalment, it was revealed that one of the firms named Accutor from which Muscat had re- ceived payments had originally been named VGH Europe and was set up by Ram Tumuluri, an investor in the Malta VGH company. e information available in the public domain so far closes the circle of how money flowed from the Malta hospitals concessionaire to Accutor and from Accutor to Muscat. e former prime minister denies his con- sultancy had anything to do with the Malta hospitals operations, insisting he will fight what he has called "false claims" tooth and nail. It has to be seen whether the mag- isterial inquiry into the hospitals deal concludes that criminal action should be taken against Muscat and others, who occupied high public office. e inquiry has not yet finished its work, four years after it started upon a request filed by rule of law NGO Repubblika. No other prime minister in Malta's history has ever been implicated in potentially criminal acts as Muscat has been. is is not something to be taken lightly. But irrespective of who the inquiry indicts, the truth of the matter re- mains that the hospitals concession contract was conceived with ill intent from day one. e Auditor General has provided ample proof of this in three voluminous reports covering the deal from inception to its final transfer to Steward Healthcare. e nail in the coffin came earlier this year when Judge Francesco De- pasquale annulled the contract on the basis of fraud and the fact that agreed milestones were not achieved. And while all this is being played out in different fora, the Maltese people have been denied what was promised – a new Gozo hospital, a refurbished Karen Grech Rehabilitation hospital, and a new St Luke's that would pri- marily house medical tourists. But it is not just the promised €200 million in investments that has failed to materialise. e lost opportunity cost of making further investments cannot be ignored either. Not enough public money was pumped into existing hospital facilities and staff because of the hefty payments that were being made to VGH and Stew- ard. is has led to overcrowding in hospital and lengthier waiting times for medical interventions. Whichever way you look at this deal and its wider political ramifications; it stinks to high heaven. It is the epit- ome of bad governance and corrup- tion, which is why no stone should remain unturned to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. Bad governance erodes the implied trust that binds all actors in a dem- ocratic society. It harms the State, the individual and business. No one is immune from the ill effects of bad governance. Bad governance distorts the market because it creates unfair competition to the detriment of legitimate firms that act ethically. is is why the country should take stock of the situation and develop robust laws that make people in pub- lic office, including elected officials, accountable for their actions. It stinks to high heaven