Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1513668
12 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 DECEMBER 2023 Looking back 2023 NICOLE MEILAK nmeilak@mediatoday.com.mt Of a hospitals scandal and an impending magisterial inquiry IT all started when a group of in- vestors signed a dubious memo- randum of understanding with the economy ministry in 2015. Some of those investors would later secure a concession to run three public hospitals. The same concession would later be sold to another company. But it all fell apart in 2023, when a judge laid out his sentence on whether the government's deal- ings with Vitals Global Health- care, and later Steward, were done in good faith. All contracts connected to the deal were can- celled, and the judge suggested 'fraudulent intent' behind the whole deal. Now the government has taken back ownership of the hospitals, and the court rul- ing was reconfirmed on ap- peal. Court annuls all hospitals contracts Mr Justice Francesco De- pasquale delivered a damning, 138-page ruling on the hos- pitals deal last February. The memorandum of understanding that investors signed before the granting of the concession was "evidence of its fraudulent in- tent". The €100 million buy-out clause for Steward was "possibly criminal". And the concession milestones? "A complete farce." According to the judge, Vitals should have disclosed informa- tion about the memorandum of understanding before it was granted the concession. Do- ing so would have rendered the company ineligible for the ten- der. Depasquale also criticised Steward Healthcare, questioning whether they entered into the contractual agreement in good faith – especially since the Stew- ard companies failed to defend in court that there was no breach of the contractual obligations on their part. The government was not s p a r e d b y Depasquale either. The judge slammed the government's "am- ateurish" checks before signing the contract, saying it appeared as if there was no intention of evaluating the proposals in the first place. He also put the spotlight on Konrad Mizzi, for signing var- ious agreements to the benefit of Vitals and Steward, "and cer- tainly not to the benefit of the government and the citizen". Steward was quick to take the ruling to the Appeals Court. But eight months later, the land's highest court dismissed the ap- peal, and it was again scathing in its remarks on the deal. "The fact is, however, that they failed in their duties towards the country, they failed to seek the remedies that they should have sought and it had to be the plaintiff to take the initiative so that in the interests of the country, used those reme- dies to impugn the conces- sion contract and the other contracts tied to it," the three judges presiding over the case said in their ruling. Separately from local court proceedings, the Maltese gov- ernment opened arbitration proceedings against Steward Healthcare in front of the Inter- national Chamber of Commerce last April. This case is expected to be determined by the end of 2025. Auditor-General publishes third report on hospitals concession Three months after the con- tracts were annulled, the Nation- al Audit Office (NAO) published its third report on the hospitals concession deal, and it was just as damning as the judge's ruling. The audit showed that Konrad Mizzi had granted Vitals author- isation to transfer the concession to Steward Healthcare before seeking Cabinet's endorsement. The Auditor-General also ac- cused Mizzi of misleading Cab- inet on the side agreement he concluded with Steward, by which the government would be liable to pay the company €100 million if a court annulled the contract. The report was the third instal- ment in a series of audits into the concession. The NAO said it was gravely concerned by the "unor- thodox dynamic that persisted between the prime minister [Jo- seph Muscat] and the Minister for Tourism [Konrad Mizzi], to the detriment of the Minister for Health [Chris Fearne]". The NAO said the government allowed itself to be exploited when the health concession was delegated to the tourism minis- ter, since it created a weakness that was leveraged by Steward. Hospitals saga gives PN fresh impetus It was Adrian Delia who, as PN leader, filed a court case in 2018 against the government and Vi- tals Global Healthcare asking for the contracts to be annulled and the three hospitals to be re- turned to the public. After five long years during which he was driven out of the party leadership by a rebellion, Delia's lone stance against the hospitals deal was vindicated in 2023. The hospitals saga became a key part of the Nationalist Par- ty's campaigning throughout the year, dedicating the Workers' Day mass meeting and a protest in October to the hospitals saga. Now, the PN has opened a case against the State Advocate for failing to recover the €400 mil- lion paid to Vitals and Steward through the deal. Joseph Muscat tries to replace Vitals inquiry magistrate But the hospitals saga also saw former prime minister Joseph Muscat return to the public are- na in a bid to exculpate himself from alleged wrongdoing. With a magisterial inquiry on the hos- pitals deal yet to be concluded, Muscat had already faced a po- lice search at his home in Janu- ary 2022. In 2023, he upped the ante on the magistrate. He twice ap- peared on Smash TV to air his grievances about the inquiry. He has also used official court ave- nues to try and replace the mag- istrate overseeing the inquiry. In court, Muscat is claiming his rights were breached after Magistrate Gabriella Vella said online comments published by her father and brother on Mus- cat were free expression. Muscat insists this is grounds for recusal on her part. He also argued that leaks from her inquiry undermine her judi- ciousness. It had been revealed by the me- dia that Muscat received over- seas consultancy payments after he left politics from a company with links to Steward Health- care. Subsequently, it was re- vealed that Muscat had also re- ceived payments from a Swiss company Accutor that was orig- inally called VGH Europe. Muscat has denied any wrong- doing, insisting the work was le- gitimate and is accounted for. Four years on from the filing of Repubblika's request for the inquiry, the conclusion of this process is now understood to be close at hand. Adrian Delia went to Court and succeeded in cancelling the controversial Steward hospitals contract