The police have searched an office at the Health Ministry that was occupied by a former employee who was allegedly involved in a medical visas racket, the Times of Malta has learnt.
The search was made last week by officers probing reports that Neville Gafà had been procuring medical visas for Libyan nationals against payment.
According to a whistleblowing letter signed by lawyer Leslie Cuschieri on behalf of Libyan Khaled Ben Nasan, Mr Gafà coordinated the operation for about a year and three months, “until this way of applying for a visa was stopped”.
The letter claims that Mr Gafà later ran a new medical visa application process whereby Libyans would send their passports in advance and he would charge different prices for obtaining the visa.
The whistleblower alleged Mr Gafà had been given more than 42 Libyan passports to apply for visas and organise hospital stays, raking in up to €38,000.
He was transferred to another office outside the Health Ministry after the allegations, and the case was reported to the police
It was further claimed that Mr Gafà had been asked to refund the misused funds to the Libyan nationals after it transpired that he had not used it for the purpose of acquiring visas but had instead used the money “for the purchase of a BMW car”.
The leaked whistleblower letter, received on April 11, also said Mr Ben Nasan had wanted Konrad Mizzi, then health and energy minister, to intervene in the “delicate issue” to find a solution.
Government sources said yesterday that Mr Gafa was still working at the Health Ministry at the time Dr Mizzi lost his health portfolio in a Cabinet reshuffle on April 28, after his name surfaced in the Panama Papers.
Mr Gafà, the sources said, was later made to leave the ministry and had begun working for the Foundation of Medical Services, operating from an office at St Luke’s Hospital “on matters unrelated to the issuing of medical visas”.
When contacted by this newspaper yesterday, Mr Gafà said he preferred not to comment until the investigation was concluded.
Questions sent to FMS chief executive officer, Carmen Ciantar, were referred to the Health Ministry, and a ministry spokeswoman confirmed that Mr Gafà was on a three-year contract with FMS, as of April 2014. She said Mr Gafà was transferred to another office outside the Health Ministry after the allegations, and the case was reported to the police.
This is not the first time medical visas have hit the headlines. Back in November 2015, this newspaper reported about the extraordinary number of such visas issued that year and that the police had received allegations of abuse.
More than 600 medical visas that allowed Libyan citizens to come for treatment in Malta were issued in the first half of 2015, in sharp contrast with the 252 issued in 2011, when the Libyan conflict was at its peak.
The Times of Malta had also reported that among those questioned by the police were officials at Identity Malta and at the Office of the Prime Minister.