The details are dizzying. The lucrative health services contract of concession entitles the hidden owners to €70 million per year, or €188,000 a day, from the Maltese government (read, we taxpayers) for potentially 99 years. A contract guaranteeing €7 billion in revenue to private, hidden owners.
It is by far the largest concession given by the Maltese government since Independence. In a matter of a few months, Vitals Global Healthcare received €50 million from taxpayer funds to run the concession but ended up €55 million in the red.
Three of Malta’s hospitals have been effectively privatised for over a generation by Konrad Mizzi, who goes about by the nomenclature of minister but who, in effect, is political ‘con man’-in-chief.
At every turn, requests for information about VGH were turned down and resisted by the government who showed no shame with each shocking revelation by investigative journalists, principally the Shift News (thanks to whom we know that, in October 2014, the government signed a secret memorandum of understanding with the businessmen behind VGH, a full five months before Projects Malta published a request for proposals from anyone interested in running the three hospitals), the Sunday Times of Malta (which reported that VGH had missed every investment milestone to which it had committed in spite of the €50 million from our taxes they got) and Daphne Caruana Galizia (who, in March 2015, said that the government had already reached this agreement and referred to the business past of VGH’s initial frontman, Ram Tumuluri, as well as the fact that VGH was a start-up, with no experience of the health sector).
These revelations have buttressed even more the unprecedented court case instituted in February of last year by the leader of the Opposition, Adrian Delia, to have this con concession rescinded as the government allowed VGH to transfer its duties and obligations to third parties before reaching the contractually-bound completion milestones.
The latter included the building of a medical school, state-of-the-art research and development facilities in the health sector, the development of a medical campus in Malta and Gozo, a regional primary healthcare hub in the Gozo Hospital, the redevelopment of the Gozo Hospital, the provision of 50 additional beds at Karin Grech Hospital, 80 additional beds of rehabilitation at St Luke’s Hospital, beds for medical tourism at St Luke’s Hospital and more.
Malta will not become a private fiefdom
These milestones had to be reached before the lapse of three years from date of signing of the concession, that is November 30, 2015. This crucial contractual obligation was not observed and the government deliberately allowed VGH to run roughshod over a €7 billion contract, financed by our money. To add insult to injury, the government did not bother to impose on VGH the hefty contractual penalties for this blatant breach of contract.
Instead of being the guarantor, both in terms of its fiduciary obligations towards us and as grantor of this concession, the government aided and abetted this brazen breach of contract.
As this occurred, some elements were receiving hundreds of thousands of euros in bribes and are set to continue receiving them for years to come.
Both the government and VGH came up with multiple red herrings in their many preliminary pleas to the court case instituted by Dr Delia last year. The object was quite clear: delay as much as possible the court proceedings. They asked the Court of First Instance to deliver a judgment on each of the preliminary pleas raised, knowing that, in this eventuality, an appeal on each one of these preliminary pleas entails many years to be decided. Each one.
Just imagine in which year the final judgment on the merits of the case instituted by Dr Delia would be delivered and, thereafter, any appeal from it. Any conservative estimate would tell you that they did not want, and worked tirelessly not to have, this case decided in our lifetime.
The leader of the Opposition vehemently opposed this before the First Court, which, in fact, decided against this stratagem by the government and VGH declaring that such a case of “national importance” cannot be treated in this way.
An appeal was filed from this decision. The new feudal lords wanted at all costs to delay the final outcome.
The Court of Appeal has now decided, once and for all, in favour of the leader of the Opposition and against the government and VGH. Later on that same day, Dr Delia asked the First Court to forthwith reappoint the hearing of this case.
Yes, it was a significant victory for all those people of goodwill in this country who cannot stomach anymore the unbridled sleaze, corruption and abuse of power of this government.
Malta will not become a private fiefdom.
Jason Azzopardi is a Nationalist Party MP.
This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece