John Dalli yesterday said it was the Prime Minister who had asked him to write his report on Mater Dei Hospital, contradicting the Health Minister’s statement that it had not been commissioned by the government.
Mr Dalli told Times of Malta: “I was in a meeting with the Prime Minister, I was not alone, there were lots of other people, among them the Health Minister, and we were giving him an account of what we think there is at Mater Dei, and the Prime Minister asked me to do this in writing. So I was asked to do this.”
This contradicts the minister’s statement to the media in a press conference on Wednesday: “The John Dalli report was never commissioned by the government. John Dalli is working as an adviser to the Health Ministry on a voluntary basis and it was his wish to take a snapshot of how he sees things personally and the possible way forward; and that is what he did. He expressed his wish and we accepted his wish.”
The Prime Minister asked me to do this in writing
The Office of the Prime Minister was asked yesterday to clarify which version was correct but no answers were forthcoming by the time of going to print.
The OPM was also asked if the report had come on Mr Dalli’s initiative and why it was given such importance, including being mentioned in the Prime Minister’s budget address.
Speaking on One Radio last Sunday, Dr Muscat said the government had appointed Mr Dalli to draw up a report that would take a snapshot of the situation.
Mr Dalli admitted yesterday he spoke to Dr Farrugia after the media quoted him saying that the report had not been commissioned by the government.
“I spoke to him when I read that I had undertaken this as a personal initiative. However, the minister told me that what he meant by ‘not been commissioned’ was that I was not being paid,” said Mr Dalli.
He added: “Now I don’t know. I’m not going to judge. I will not get into a debate about what the minister said.”
Questions sent to Dr Farrugia asking him to clarify what he meant by “commissioned” also remained unanswered yesterday.
Mr Dalli said it was “not news” that the report did not reflect the position of the government.
“That’s the statement that the minster made on Saturday during the presentation of the report. So why all this fuss now?”
He said he had been asked by the Prime Minister to help in the health sector after the Health Minister took the initiative.
“And I accepted because this is a national issue and not partisan.” He stressed that he had no executive position, had not taken any decisions and that he and his daughter “won’t be paid a cent” for their work.
“I will expect that rather than wasting time on this you analyse exactly what’s written in the report and check out the dirt it brings up. You are trying to divert people’s attention from what there is in the report and attack me personally,” said Mr Dalli, adding that he wrote what he felt “the population should know”.
When asked if he felt Dr Farrugia was distancing himself from the report, he said: “Isn’t it obvious that’s what needs to be done?
“These are my opinions and not the government’s...and like I said yesterday, when you put your finger in the wound, there will be people who will say ouch.”
He compared his report to the Johns Hopkins University report commissioned under the PN government.
“The others [Nationalist government] paid a million. They distanced themselves from the report – they didn’t own it. They just left it there on the shelf.”
He said that in his opinion, at this stage there now needs to be “an implementation plan”.
However, he did not know if he would be involved or not. “I wrote this report for the government. I am not part of the government and I am not part of the decision making machinery.”