Prime Minister Joseph Muscat insisted yesterday that those responsible for the weak concrete structure discovered at the Mater Dei Hospital would be held to account.
“I want to make sure that whoever is responsible, both criminally and civilly, will shoulder their responsibility,” Dr Muscat said in his first comments since the problems with the hospital’s emergency department were revealed by The Sunday Times of Malta.
An inquiry board, chaired by former judge Philip Sciberras, was set up after tests indicated that parts of the concrete structure were weaker than ordinary pavements.
Dr Muscat said that, while political responsibility was “obvious”, the inquiry by Judge Sciberras was expected to establish criminal and civil responsibilities too.
Tests are now also being carried out to assess the rest of the hospital, which had cost taxpayers €600 million and took almost 15 years to complete.
The weakness of the structure at the emergency department surfaced when companies that won a tender to build two new wards, Mekkanika and Attard Bros, carried out a stress test to ensure the building could take the extra floors.
“When [Health Minister] Konrad Mizzi first told me about the poor quality concrete, I told him to order tests in two other laboratories to confirm the results. I was shocked when I saw footage showing that certain concrete samples could actually be broken apart with one’s bare hands,” the Prime Minister said yesterday.
The Sunday Times of Malta reported yesterday that public pavements were stronger than certain concrete structures supporting the hospital’s emergency department. In some areas, the grade of concrete used fell way short of the established standards, forcing the authorities to take immediate action.
A substantial number of columns supporting the emergency department could need to be replaced or reinforced.
Dr Muscat said that the safety of the hospital staff and patients was not being taken for granted and emergency work was carried out.
The matter was shocking, particularly given the huge expense involved in building the hospital, the final bill far exceeding what had been budgeted for, he said.
Meanwhile, in comments to this newspaper, Dr Muscat’s predecessor, Alfred Sant, who was highly critical of the project, said the Mater Dei Hospital development was riddled with accountability and management problems from the beginning.
“The people at the [building] site were given instructions which didn’t make sense. When work started, they didn’t know where they were going. The whole thing was done without a proper plan,” Dr Sant said.
The people at the site were given instructions that didn’t make sense- Alfred Sant
At one point in the early stages of the project, Dr Sant had zeroed in on Mixer Ltd, the concrete company belonging to Bastjan Dalli, then-finance minister John Dalli’s brother.
The contract for the building of the hospital was awarded to a consortium that included Swedish construction giant Skanska together with Maltese developers Blokrete and Devlands.
“The project stank from the very beginning all the way through. This was an issue of contracting and oversight,” he said.
Dr Sant had alleged at the time that Mixer Ltd was supplying concrete using trucks belonging to Blokrete and Devlands.
He had later shown the media a video recording of a Devlands truck getting concrete from the firm before heading towards the Tal-Qroqq hospital.
Bastjan Dalli was reported denying he had ever supplied any concrete for the emergency department. Repeated attempts to contact him yesterday were unsuccessful.
In 2002, Mixer Ltd had a €2.5 million contract cancelled by the Housing Department.
The contract for the project that included 22 public housing apartments in Floriana had been rescinded after a team of government experts found that the concrete used for the ceilings was below standard and “unsafe”.