Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/899902
maltatoday SUNDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2017 Opinion 26 MATTHEW VELLA The owner of private hospital St James, Josie Muscat – leader of right-wing Azzjoni Nazzjonali – has refuted allega- tions from Frank Portelli, chief ex- ecutive of the other private hospital St Philip's, of having paid commissions to doctors for the provision of patients. Portelli, the former president of the Nationalist Party general council, was categorical in claims that Muscat 'cor- rupted' doctors with commissions, in an interview on PBS's Reporter. He said Muscat had built "an empire based on a system… by corrupting professionals through commissions, not professional fees, for sending patients" to his hospital. He was reacting to an article penned by the AN leader in which Muscat said the people had lost trust in various members of society, including profes- sionals. Portelli, saying that doctors were professionals too, said he was "quite amazed… you have the leader of a new party who says he wants to mend things and that there is no trust in profession- als… no wonder people have no trust." Asked to substantiate his serious al- legation, Portelli said he himself had received a commission from Muscat's clinic sometime in 1992 or 1993, for having referred a patient to his clinic. On his part, a cool Josie Muscat sounded unfazed by the allegations when contacted by MaltaToday yester- day. "There's a medical council to whom Frank Portelli can throw mud at me, and he can take it there, if he has any evidence. I'm certainly not going through the trouble to take anyone up to court," Muscat said. "He can say what he likes, if he has any evidence of what he is saying. But he is certainly a coward if he has nothing to base it upon. I don't care what he said. I know his character." Asked for his comments on whether he had paid a commission to Portelli himself, Muscat said: "I don't know about it. We don't pay commissions." He also added that commissions to doctors were wrong. "Certainly, it is a wrong to pay commissions to a doctor, because it's a bribe for someone to give you more business." The outspoken Frank Portelli has previously alleged that a member on the adjudicating board for the granting of tenders at Mater Dei hospital had him- self submitted a tender through a com- pany in which he had an interest. "This individual proceeded to take documents – some 7 box loads of site plans, build- ing plans, and bills of quantities, to a photocopying centre in Valletta – when he had no authority to neither copy nor retain a copy for his own personal use. No doubt this documentation would give him and his company an unfair advantage when submitting tenders for the Mater Dei." He has already been summoned to the police depot for questioning about his allegations that "commissions" had been paid over the construction of Mater Dei. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. News – 7 November, 2007 Muscat refutes allegations of commissions paid to doctors A matter of legal tradition Incitement to murder Reference is being made to Saviour Balzan's article called A (short) history of impunity and Kurt Sansone's article called In the eye of the storm. The two articles made very interesting readings. However, I would like to set the record straight on two points. Firstly, under our legal system, the Attorney General does not have any investigative powers and, consequently, does not arraign people to Court. At best the Attorney General may be asked by the Police to give legal advice to the Police prior to an arraignment. Secondly, it is not true that the fact that the Office of the Attorney General provides both civil law and criminal law services is a contradiction or in itself a bad thing. If it were, the various international organisations such as GRECO and the European Commission would have said so ages ago. The reality is that each country has its own legal tradition – in Australia, the Office of the Attorney General provides both civil and criminal law services and at the same time has a seat in Cabinet. In Scotland, the Lord Advocate holds functions of both civil law and criminal law nature and, until recently, used to sit in Parliament. Nobody claimed that Australia or Scotland lack democracy or that the rule of law is in shatters because of this fact. Both George Borg Olivier, when he drafted our Independence Constitution, and Dom Mintoff, when he revised it ten years afterwards, chose, very wisely in my opinion, to retain the principle enshrined in our legal system that at the end of the day one person has to answer for all the legal services which the Office of the Attorney General has a duty to undertake. Owen Bonnici Minister for Justice, Culture and Local Government A Facebook user, Aaron Vella, posted on Facebook an incitement to terrorism. I and many others believe that he should be immedi- ately arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to a maxi- mum prison term. This is a translation of what this scum wrote: "I wonder why a van has never been driven into a crowd here in Malta. Hopefully this will take place during next Sunday's meeting. How I will enjoy seeing them SQUASHED on the road!". It has been pointed out that this person handles a variety of heav y vehicles daily. Should he decide to take the initiative to fulfil his wish, who will be to blame for not acting to prevent such a tragedy? Francis Formosa Sliema A short open letter to Mr Tajani In this time of grief, it is impor- tant to share our feelings towards our beloved whom we have lost. It is sad that a mother and wife, an emotional pillar in any family, dies to leave behind a great loss and emptiness so difficult to replace. I had gone through that experience many years ago. My mother died when she was very young. She was to me the great- est hero. Unfortunately, very few lamented her loss. It seems com- mon people come and go without anybody giving a hoot. In any case, what can we do? About two years ago, a family member very close to me who happened to decide to enter public life fell victim to the gos- sip world of the recently defunct blogger, or investigative journal- ist, choose the name you prefer. My relative was literally butch- ered to pieces by the vicious pen and the job finished by her fol- lowers on line like roman citizens inside the gladiator arena. The whole scene was all made up and my relative had a choice to make between picking up the pieces of his battered character assas- sination or to revert to endless, needless and expensive court proceedings to sue for libel. The latter subject should have been the speech at the opening of this year's forensic year: The delay to find justice inside our law courts. Dear Mr Tajani, while it is most honourable to lament the loss of a beloved mother and husband's wife, I write this short note to exercise my write to freedom of expression, a phrase we heard so much lately, to bring to attention, unless you have not been informed already, that the investigative journalist you came here to honour was also a dishonest blogger who made use of her journalistic methods to instil social division and hatred of class in our society. This saga has been most unfair to many and most unkind. In fairness you should not have overlooked this other side of the story. The psychological damage she caused to many will not die with her unfortunate and despic- able demise. No human being deserves to die in that manner. Our society longs for justice to be done in that respect. We forgive by all means but it will remain difficult for many in our society to forget. At the time of writing this short contribution, I am lamenting a great unsung hero: Prof. Anthony Zammit. The mountain of good he has done to our society, and mankind in general, will live forever after his life. Albert Borg Gzira