Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1521306
AN inquiry into the Vitals Global Healthcare concession has identified companies with concealed ownership that lead back to former chief of staff Keith Schembri and ex-minis- ter Konrad Mizzi. These companies engaged in consultancy agreements with various companies to help them win tenders issued by Maltese authorities, in return for a commission fee. Here are some of the projects and tenders that Schembri and Mizzi benefitted from, togeth- er with their associates. Eurybates, Encore and Gateway Several companies set up and fronted by Ivan Vassallo, a former marketing director at Technoline who used a €5.14 million loan from Vitals Global Shareholders, were used to ex- tract kickbacks on government projects. The primary companies, Eu- rybates and Gateway Solu- tions, were used to skim profits from government tenders in the case of the former, while the latter was used to take over Technoline, which VGH used for 'exclusive' supply of medi- cal equipment. Eurybates was set up in Sep- tember 2015 to become part of a joint venture called Gene Malta to provide personalised medicine at a "new €100 mil- lion hospital based at SmartC- ity Malta". In the two companies, inves- tigators concluded that 90% of the shares were planned to be held by former Allied Newspa- pers director Adrian Hillman, Pierre Sladden, Keith Schem- bri and Konrad Mizzi. A third company, Encore Trading, was fronted by Slad- den's son Jean Claude, while under the control of Vassallo and Sladden senior, as associ- ates of Keith Schembri. Barts Medical School in Gozo Plans to open a Gozo branch of Barts had been first pub- licised by the government in March 2014, with construc- tion entrusted to Vitals Global Healthcare, and later Steward Healthcare upon transfer of the concession in 2017. In April 2018, Steward signed a contract with Italian con- struction business Sirimed to design and build the Barts Gozo campus. But a commercial re- lationship also existed between Eurybates and Sirimed, which saw the former receiving five payments from Sirimed total- ling €804,900 between August 2019 and March 2021. This relationship was for- malised through an agreement whereby Sirimed appointed Eurybates as its local agent, and that the Italian compa- ny would pay Eurybates 5% of the value of the contract with Steward. Indeed, the total amount in- voiced by Eurybates to Sirimed is approximately equivalent to 5% of the contract value agreed by Sirimed with Steward Healthcare International for the Barts Medical School, plus 5% of the contract value for the Anatomy Centre. Eurybates also received mon- ey from Ergon Technoline JV, a joint venture company be- tween Ergon Projects Limited and Technoline, that was also the subcontractor in the Barts construction project. Paola Primary Healthcare Re- gional Hub Ivan Vassallo drafted an agreement whereby Eury- bates would help Ergon in submitting a tender to design and build the Paola Primary Healthcare Regional Hub. The original tender was ini- tially awarded to SP BB Inter- national JV, a consortium that included Ray Vella & Co Ltd, Pantalesco and Shapoorji. But three firms, including Er- gon-Technoline JV, objected to the tender and argued that their exclusion from the tender was illegal. They pointed out that the selected bidder put forward an offer that was €3.6 million higher than the cheap- est one. The contract was eventual- ly revoked and given to Er- gon-Technoline JV. A Greek consortium, Sal- fo-Ado JV, also entered into an agreement with Eurybates to provide business information services. This consortium went on to win a tender for project management and technical su- pervisory services for the Paola regional healthcare hub. No money was identified to have flown into Eurybates, but a parallel company called En- core Trading Ltd – under the control of Ivan Vassallo and Pierre Sladden as associates of Keith Schembri – received almost €100,000 in October 2019. Investigators suspect these payments were a kick- back for the Paola Regional Hub tender. Mater Dei Hospital, Sir Anthony Mamo Ivan Vassallo drafted a ser- vice agreement between Tech- noline and Eurybates in April 2019, but backdated to De- cember 2017. This agreement refers to Eurybates providing consultancy services to Tech- noline, and the parties coor- dinated efforts in relation to Technoline's submission "for the modernization, upgrad- ing and servicing of the Radi- otherapy Treatment Planning Systems at SAMOC Mater Dei Hospital". In total, Technoline paid Eu- rybates €664,001 between De- cember 2017 and July 2019 for these services. According to the inquiry re- port, the first invoice raised by Eurybates on Technoline was dated May 2016 for €78,650 6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 MAY 2024 VITALS INQUIRY NICOLE MEILAK nmeilak@mediatoday.com.mt A hand in every cookie jar: and Mizzi sought to profit From Vitals to Barts, to Paola's Regional Hub and Mater Dei Hospital – the inquiry lists several key government projects that the two intended to profit on