Health Minister Chris Fearne was non-committal in his answers to questions posed by The Malta Independent, as to whether the full government-Vitals Global Healthcare contracts should be shown to the Leader of the Opposition.

Professor Albert Fenech, who is both a member of the Medical Association of Malta, and sits on the Vitals Global Healthcare Medical Board, had previously told this newsroom when asked about parts of the contracts being blanked out; “that, unfortunately, is the government’s responsibility. To me it is completely opaque and stupid not to publish things like that. I can understand that there would be some elements that would be financially sensitive. I’ll tell you what I’d do if I were a decent Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. I’d invite the Leader of the Opposition and let him have a look at the complete contract. That way, one would not need to publish the whole thing. Just like the Leader of the Opposition is involved in the National Security Council as a responsible person who would not divulge any information which he agrees is in the national interest not to be, then I am perfectly confident that the Opposition Leader who is a responsible person would not have done that. If I was being accused of being dishonest, I would do my utmost to show people that I was not being dishonest by being transparent”.  

Health Minister Fearne was asked: “Albert Fenech said that he doesn’t see why the full contract was not shown to the Leader of the Opposition. Do you think the contract should be shown to the leader of the opposition?”

In response, the minister said: “Not only to the Leader of the Opposition. As I promised, after the summer recess, I was to table the contracts in Parliament. In fact the contracts were tabled in Parliament which had more than 300 pages and anyone interested can see them and not just the Leader of the Opposition.

This newsroom then clarified: “But he was referring to the full contract, without the redacted sections”.

The Health Minister, however, only explained the reasons for parts of the contracts being redacted.  

“As I previously explained, most of what was not published is not the VGH – government contract, but rather a substantial part of what was not published surrounds the agreement between VGH and Barts Medical School. Government has a contract with Barts, but then Barts also has a contract with VGH. There are other parts which contain commercially sensitive information and as happens with every contract published or tabled, these are kept hidden. There were contracts that in whole were not published and others that till today, even when they expire, government cannot table. We, on the other hand, published contracts with 300 pages which are available to everyone”.

He was further pressed and asked whether his answer means that he would not show Dr Busuttil the full contracts, however he only said that the contracts are tabled in Parliament.