Police investigation into Vitals deal must be launched

“It should worry us all that months before the government had issued a Request for Proposals for Malta’s hospitals, the investors who won the bid had already signed an agreement among themselves with specific details related to the concession. Coupled with the revelation that the government sold the contents of the three hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare for just €1 raises very serious, fundamental questions that remain unanswered. Konrad Mizzi’s fingerprints all over the deal alone make it immediately suspicious and these latest exposés continue to ascertain what we have long thought,” said MEP Roberta Metsola today.

Roberta Metsola added “It is increasingly looking like that this whole deal was a sham, a front, in order for Vitals, a company with zero experience in healthcare, to take over Malta’s National Hospitals in a deal worth some two billion euros, before selling them a few months down the road for massive profits. There are simply too many questions left unanswered, too many suspicious coincidences, too many accusations of corruption, too much left in the dark, for this deal to go ahead without proper, public scrutiny,” said Roberta Metsola today.

“Within the European Parliament we will continue to look into whether the deal has breached any EU regulations and we will support any action that safeguards patients and Malta’s national healthcare service, but the revelations and implications are now so serious that it is clear that the intervention of law enforcement is immediately required,” said Roberta Metsola.

The pressure on the Government to come clean on the issue continues to increase. The Auditor General has agreed to look into the case and last week the PN Parliamentary Group filed a judicial protest underlining how Vitals failed to observe its contractual obligations, through which it was handed public land and called on the Lands Authority to take all steps available to them at law. Doctors are also set to strike next week over the deal.

“When the eyes of Europe are on Malta, a responsible Government should do everything in its power to show that they have nothing to hide in this deal. Instead they chose to hide things and defend Vitals instead of the national interest” added Roberta Metsola.

“Joseph Muscat underestimates our resolve to get to the bottom of the shambles they have created and we will look at every option possible to protect our health service and the interests of the public.”