Projects Malta is not yet in a position to provide Times of Malta with a copy of the €9 million performance guarantee Vitals Global Healthcare had to make within 30 days from signing a 30-year concession agreement.
After the government agency refused to hand over a copy of the guarantee and to state which bank had provided the €9 million declaration as stipulated by the contract signed with the government in 2015, the Times of Malta made a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
In a reply, Projects Malta, which falls under Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi’s political responsibility, said: “It needs to consult third parties before it can decide on this request and more time is needed to obtain the necessary feedback.”
According to law, the agency must reply within 20 days.
Read: Confusion reigns amid silence over Vitals' €9 million guarantee
According to the concession agreement, Vitals had to make the performance guarantee and, in default, the agreement could be declared null. The concession agreement was for Vitals to run Karin Grech, St Luke's and Gozo General hospitals.
When pressed on whether Vitals had, in fact, submitted the guarantee, Dr Mizzi had said it did, adding he could not recall which bank had issued the guarantee.
According to contract clauses that were redacted when tabled in Parliament, the guarantee had to act “in security for the due, proper and punctual performance of all [Vitals’s] obligations under the agreement”.
If Vitals failed to meet its contractual obligations, the government could “call upon the performance guarantee”.
Vitals, which has now sold its concession agreement to US company Steward Health Care, failed to meet a number of concession milestones listed in the agreement. These include the building of a medical campus for Barts and the provision of extra beds at Karin Grech by the end of last year.
It is not known that the government has called upon the performance guarantee.
It has given its written consent for Vitals to be sold to Steward.
No reply was forthcoming when this newspaper asked why the government had not intervened to nullify the agreement and to call upon the €9 million guarantee.
The Sunday Times of Malta has reported that Vitals was in a technical state of insolvency despite receiving about €50 million from government coffers in the span of 18 months.
Last January, just before it sold its shares to Steward, Vitals was not even in a position to pay salaries to its employees.