Updated at 12pm
Government-appointed “experts” were analysing a National Audit Office report on the Mater Dei Hospital project to see whether “further action” was warranted, Health Minister Chris Fearne said.
The audit was requested by the Finance Minister in June 2015. He asked the Auditor General to investigate the process leading to the design, building, certification, payment, completion and eventual closure of the project. The report was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.
Read: Poor record-keeping thwarts investigation into Mater Dei Hospital project
Mr Fearne said on Wednesday it was still too early to say what steps the government would be taking on the matter, adding that the Auditor General’s findings were being reviewed in detail by a group of experts he had assembled.
Among other things, the Auditor General found it could be next to impossible for the government to recover any damages for the inferior quality of cement used to build the state-of-the-art facility.
Read: Government to sue Skanska over Mater Dei concrete
The audit was hampered by lack of documentation, missing files and incomplete records, making it difficult for the NAO to carry out its work.
“In certain cases, the Foundation for Medical Services indicated that the files and documents sought by the NAO had not been found and that the said boxes, referenced as containing the documents requested were in fact empty,” the NAO report said.
The Audit Office concluded that the failure to provide the required information and documentation, along with other shortcomings, indicated a “breakdown of any sense of accountability, transparency and good governance”.
The NAO said a closure agreement, signed in 2009 between the government and Skanska, the Swedish company entrusted with the design and construction of the hospital, had included a waiver clause specifically requested by the latter. Apart from a settlement of €5,125,000 in variation costs, this agreement meant the parties were also waiving “all concerns, claims or disputes”.
“According to the president FMS board, the waiver clause was inserted on the insistence of the SMJV [Skanska Malta Joint Venture].
“Aside from governance concerns relating to the manner by which the waiver clause was introduced, the NAO’s attention focused on the resulting implications of this change, with the government exposed to significant risks arising from latent defects and left with severely limited means of recourse to rectify such defects,” the Auditor General said. He also remarked that performance and retention guarantees held by the government foundation and valued at €7 million, had been released in favour of Skanska, despite the two parties having pending differences of opinion.
When contacted, former health minister Joe Cassar declined to comment on the findings.
Dr Cassar, who was parliamentary secretary under then health minister John Dalli when the controversial waiver was signed, insisted he had now left politics and had nothing to say.
Mr Dalli, who is abroad, said he had not read the NAO report, adding he had never been involved in any of the contracts related to Mater Dei.
Attempts to contact former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi had been unsuccessful at the time of writing.
FMS insists that lack of documentation not its fault
The Foundation for Medical Services (FMS) iterates that it cooperated fully with the Auditor General and the NAO through various meetings and the handing over of all available documentation.
"FMS would like to clarify that the “significant lack of documentation” referenced in the report refers to the period 1993 to 2011 and is a result of such documentation being found dispersed in a haphazard manner, unrecorded or discarded, or completely missing and was not due to any lack of cooperation from the current FMS management or staff.
"Under the current management, FMS abides by all good governance practices, including strict adherence to public procurement regulations, and all information is being duly recorded and archived."