Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1530259
7 ANALYSIS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 DECEMBER 2024 Making sense of their arbitration case they're confidential, why would these two decisions be made public? And why wouldn't any other decisions and rulings be made public? We don't know of any rulings against the gov- ernment. It's up to their discre- tion," he said. Termination dispute On 16 March 2023, about a month after the concession agreement was annulled, Stew- ard said it would terminate the services concession agreement with the government due to breaches of the commercial agreements. A couple of days later, the government rejected Steward's termination and instead in- formed the company it would take over the hospitals in a "control step-in," effectively forcing the company out on its own terms. To say Steward was dis- pleased by this move would be an understatement. Threatening legal and police action, Steward stated the gov- ernment had no legal basis on which to terminate the privati- sation deal. "Steward denies and rejects the Government of Malta's at- tempts to terminate what was already a terminated conces- sion. The government's 'control step-in notice and termina- tion notice' have no legal basis. Contrary to public statements made earlier this week, the Government of Malta is legal- ly not in a position to force its step-in and is therefore not currently participating in any additional capacity within the concession," Steward said. Given the timing of the emer- gency arbitration filing, this could very well be the dispute under consideration by the In- ternational Chamber of Com- merce. The government informed Steward of this "control step- in" on 21 March. Steward told the government to back off on 23 March. Meanwhile, accord- ing to Steward, the company filed an emergency arbitration on 29 March due to the termi- nation dispute. Steward files for bankruptcy In May of this year, Steward Healthcare filed for bankruptcy in Texas. The company's bankruptcy filing identifies 30 creditors, collectively owed over $500 million, including the US gov- ernment, which is owed more than $32 million in reimburse- ments for insurance overpay- ments. Six months later, the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation warned the government that it must file proof of a claim in a US court on or before 4 No- vember. If it failed to do this, Malta stood no chance of recovering any money through the bank- ruptcy proceedings. This prompted another gov- ernment statement, revealing the current status of the ar- bitration proceedings. On 3 November, a day before the proof-of-claim deadline, the government said it had been monitoring the bankruptcy proceedings and had engaged US bankruptcy lawyers to guide it through the process. "It can be confirmed that the arbitration proceedings before the International Chamber of Commerce are currently at an advanced stage, with written pleadings expected to be con- cluded in the coming months," the statement read. Furthermore, the government said any further comments on the situation "could be prejudi- cial to the government's posi- tion in the arbitration." What we know so far Despite the confidential na- ture of the proceedings, we can piece together some details about the case from the public statements made by the two parties in dispute. 1. The case relates to the ter- minated concession. 2. The emergency arbitra- tion was brought to the ICC by Steward Healthcare because of the escalation of the termina- tion dispute. 3. The terms of the arbitra- tion are confidential, but the government has been provid- ing updates on the decisions of the proceeding and, more recently, the stage of the pro- ceedings too. 4. We could expect the case to come to a close in the coming months.