Three reports outlining problems with the construction of Mater Dei Hospital prior to the 1996 election were ignored by the health authorities, the inquiry by Judge Philip Sciberras found.

The reports included a confidential memo sent in September of that year to then health minister Louis Galea, who was president of the Foundation for Medical and Social Services responsible for the project.

Two other former Nationalist Cabinet members, John Rizzo Naudi and Antoine Mifsud Bonnici, also sat on the board of the FMSS and were privy to the reports.

Taking note of the three Cabinet members on the foundation’s board, the inquiry, headed by retired judge Philip Sciberras, said it would be “naive” to consider that the government “did not know or could not have known of the dire state that the project was in”.

The confidential memo, penned by architect Vince Cassar, warned of problems that could arise in the future, including “rampant” maintenance costs.

When contacted yesterday, Mr Cassar said it had been evident at face value that there were problems even of a design nature. He did not conduct any tests on the concrete at the time. He said that in 1997, when the incoming Labour government changed the scope of the building from a research hospital to an acute general hospital, the advice that it was possible to build two additional floors was given on the premise that structural works were done as recommended in the designs.

More on the inquiry report in Times of Malta and the e-paper on timesofmalta.com