After the Crane Currency deal, it was the Vitals Global Healthcare sell-out that came next. The country is being doped by economic growth to the point of blindness. The Labour Party’s repackaged socialism has turned out to be capitalism of the worst kind. The price to be paid for these antics will be heavy.

Crane Currency got a good deal out of its local investment, with more than a generous helping hand from the government. The deal was so good it helped the company sell itself at a good price. Someone made a good profit, someone will be making good money and the taxpayer who cannot afford his rent is subsidising it all. This is not socialism.

That the Vitals deal fell through gives the lie to practically everything the government has said about selling three of the country’s public hospitals with promises of state-of-the-art healthcare by a company so new on the job it barely got started. A new US company has come in and the government tries to promote it as an achievement. It was not. It was the salvage of a deal gone wrong. The sad, disturbing fact is the fear that someone has planned it all along.

The government thinks it can get through all of this by employing hype and spin. It has gotten through most of its crises in exactly this way and has been very successful at it. Only that would explain the stunning electoral victory in June. But this Vitals scam comes across as a step too far.

It is not the spectre of US capitalism that is preoccupying because it has advantages. It is rather the lingering preoccupation that the government itself, in its new clothes, is acting like a capitalist with the country’s assets, even in immensely sensitive sectors, like healthcare.

Privatising healthcare would have been anathema to the Labour Party only a few years ago. But electoral success has numbed any ideological opposition to the Prime Minister’s ‘cosmopolitan’ plans for the country. Vitals has always been an immensely obscure project and is now raising suspicion of a huge money-laundering or money-making deal. How can the Maltese government ever allow something like this? How deep is the rot?

The government said the agreement reached between Steward Health Care and Vitals “will continue to deliver free and world-class healthcare facilities in Malta”. It seems to think the country is made up of gullible idiots. So far, Vitals has offered no healthcare facilities to the Maltese people, world-class or third class. There has been nothing but a covert agreement that raised more questions as details emerged. Now we have the answer. It was a scam.

Health Minister Chris Fearne said the concession agreement had stipulated that if Vitals were to sell its concession it had to seek government approval. And it got it, as it happened days before the new money-laundering regulations set by the European Union, were due to come into effect. The government has a lot to answer for here.

According to the Health Minister, the government carried out due diligence before giving its blessing. That sounds immensely hollow, given that it should have apparently done the same with Vitals.

This country thought it had a problem with rule of law. It also has a problem with governance itself.

This is a Times of Malta print editorial