A ward for women at Mount Carmel Hospital is unusable after bad planning left it without sanitary facilities and electrical points despite thousands of euros spent on refurbishment.

The discovery of the botched project was only made by chance in recent days when Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia visited the hospital.Dr Farrugia asked to see the refurbished female ward and was about to compliment the good work done when he noticed there were no electrical points installed, according to a spokesman from the ministry.

Sources said the minister’s question as to why the electrical fittings were not in place caused embarrassment as hospital managers stuttered to explain the refurbishment did not include electrical works.

No toilets, showers and baths were installed and no doors and windows fitted

“No toilets, showers and baths were installed and no doors and windows fitted”

The ministry spokesman confirmed that the ward was “not in use” for the time being.

“The ward was ‘completed’ without any electrical supply and electrical fittings. No sanitary fittings such as toilets, showers and baths, were installed and no internal doors and windows were fitted,” he said when asked why the ward was unused.

The spokesman explained that any work done on the ‘completed’ walls had to be redone for the ward to be connected to the electricity supply.

This newspaper was allowed to photograph the ward and the evidence shows incomplete refurbishment works. The place is nowhere near ready to start receiving patients.

The problem arose after project estimates went totally off mark and the hospital chief executive kept asking for more funds.

It was a variance of almost €900,000 in August 2010 that prompted the Finance Ministry to refer the CEO to the Health Ministry and audit firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers was tasked to review the project.

The report seen by The Sunday Times of Malta was delivered in December 2010 with some scathing remarks on the lack of good project management.

PwC had to report on the circumstances which led to project costs being significantly higher than those originally envisaged.

The investigation, commissioned by the Foundation for Medical Services, the government agency responsible for all hospitals, gave a blow by blow account of how project costs kept rising.

It started in March 2007 when Mount Carmel Hospital set out to refurbish Female Ward 3B and obtained a preliminary project estimate of €827,000.

However, the auditors reported how the hospital CEO felt this estimate was too high and asked for the quote to be revised.

The contractor returned with an estimate of €426,000, making it clear that the sum excluded mechanical and electrical works, roofing and waterproofing. The CEO accepted the amount and in April 2008 the Finance Ministry’s budget office approved the sum of €466,000 (including a 10 per cent contingency) for the project.

There were no effective checks and balances

However, three months later the CEO wrote to the Finance Ministry saying that project costs were revised upwards to €827,000, equivalent to the original price tag quoted by the contractor. The Finance Ministry approved the revised budget although this excluded the electrical and mechanical works.

In June 2009 a different company was appointed to provide mechanical and electrical services for the female ward refurbishment and a detailed estimate carried a price tag of €2.3 million for the refurbishment of two wards.

PwC noted that the estimates for mechanical and electrical works were considerably higher than those provided by the contractor in 2007, which had allocated €265,000 for the jobs.

The discrepancy stemmed from the fact that the contractor had relied on previous refurbishment works on a different wing to provide an estimate for mechanical and electrical works at the female ward despite the requirements being different.

A revised estimate in May 2010 put the price tag for mechanical and electrical services in Female Ward B at €1.2 million. A request for more funds to cover the new costs triggered the investigation.

“It is also pertinent to point out that there were no effective checks and balances”

While refurbishment works had already started, PwC reported that the tender for mechanical and electrical works was at a standstill pending the project review. No contract was awarded.

In their conclusions the external auditors noted there were “a series of circumstances and errors of judgement” that were made and which eventually led to the considerable variance.

“It is also pertinent to point out, that there were no effective checks and balances in place to ensure that the right decisions were being made at various stages of the project.”

Asked how the Health Ministry intended to complete the project, the spokesman said plans for the future of the female ward were being revised.

“There is a re-scoping exercise under way at the moment,” he said.