{"id":6752,"date":"2023-05-18T14:29:25","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T12:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/?post_type=article&p=6752"},"modified":"2023-05-18T14:30:14","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T12:30:14","slug":"e268-miljun-xaktarx-mormija","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/article\/e268-miljun-xaktarx-mormija\/","title":{"rendered":"\u20ac268 million down the drain, probably"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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An investigation into the hospitals\u2019 concession agreement by the National Audit Office has concluded that at least \u20ac268 million were probably thrown down the drain, as this huge sum could not be accounted for. This huge sum also equates to around \u20ac514 per inhabitant of the Maltese Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It transpires that in the period between 2016 and 2021 the government paid the concessionaire (Vitals Global Healthcare and subsequently Steward Health Care) around \u20ac456 million of which \u20ac188 million were disbursed on salaries. However, no explanation was given on how the remaining \u20ac268 million were spent, amid evidence that this money \u2018vanished\u2019 as the concessionaire failed to honour their commitments such as capital investments. As a matter of fact, the new hospital in Gozo did not materialise while St Luke\u2019s was left abandoned and in a derelict state. These investments were key aspects of this agreement, but the concessionaire failed to deliver in breach of its contractual obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, the real cost of this \u201cfraudulent\u201d deal which was annulled by a court last February, is likely to be much higher as the NAO\u2019s investigation did not take into account an additional \u20ac200 million which the concessionaire pocketed in 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from the purely financial aspect, the deal was slammed on various other fronts by the NAO. In reality, this was no surprise, as the shady nature of the agreement had already emerged in two previous reports which were part of an investigation that had been requested by the UHM Voice of the Workers in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its conclusions, the NAO pronounced itself in very strong language with respect to former health minister Konrad Mizzi who had piloted the deal, saying the latter at one point had \u201cmisled\u201d Cabinet. This accusation was levelled after it emerged that the government had agreed to be liable to a \u20ac100 million fine, should it rescind the agreement, regardless of the reason. Furthermore, the NAO pointed out that it could not understand the \u201cillogical\u201d decision to keep Konrad Mizzi in charge of the deal even after having been stripped of the health portfolio in the wake of his involvement  in the Panama Papers scandal in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its conclusions the report does not mince words to describe this saga. The headings used in the final chapter like \u201cnebulous negotiations\u201d, \u201cinto the abyss\u201d, \u201ca rude awakening\u201d, \u201cnegotiating the unnegotiable\u201d and \u201cof hopeless ending\u201d speak volumes on the opinion which the NAO formed at the end of this seven-year investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An investigation into the hospitals\u2019 concession agreement by the National Audit Office has concluded that at least \u20ac268 million were probably thrown down the drain, as this huge sum could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6753,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[322],"issuem_issue_categories":[9],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/6752"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6752"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/6752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6755,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/6752\/revisions\/6755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=6752"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=6752"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=6752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}