Auditor General Charles Deguara confirmed on Monday that the National Audit Office is looking into the concession through which three hospitals were transferred to a private operator and how the former ITS site was transferred to the db Group.
Speaking to Malta Today, Deguara said he could not give e timeframe for when the audits would be completed, adding that the NAO does not have executive powers.
Earlier this year, the Nationalist Party haad asked the NAO to investigate whether the taxpayer got good value for money in the hospitals privatization deal. St Luke’s, Karin Grech and the Gozo General Hospital were handed over to Vitals Global Healthcare. They have since been acquired by Steward Healthcare. A similar request was made over the land transfer deal which saw the db Group acquire the former ITS campus for €60 million.
Speaking to the press, the Auditor General said the NAO does not have any executive powers and any action recommended by the office would have to be taken by the government.
He said there was no indication as to how long the audits would take, explaining that the NAO handled requests in chronological order.
“We have started working on the reports. The date when they will be released has not yet been established,” Deguara said.
Deguara was speaking after the launch of the National Audit Office Strategy 2019-2023—Improving Governance and Performance across the Public Service.
The strategy document was presented to Speaker Anglu Farrugia.
In his address, Auditor General Deguara made reference to the six strategic goals of the NAO Strategy 2019-2023, namely:
To contribute towards ensuring accountability in the use of public resources;
To encourage and facilitate improvements in the quality of governance by advocating transparency in decision-making, contributing well-informed reports to parliamentary and public debate, disseminating good practice, promoting value for money and catalysing changes to administrative practice and procedure;
To become a leader in selected fields of public sector audit and to be acknowledged as a centre of excellence and expertise within Maltese public administration;
To cultivate mutually beneficial working relationships with auditees, scrutineers and peers, within the constraints set by ethical standards requiring the professional independence of external state auditors;
To increase the value for money yielded by state audit; and
To formulate audit plans on established criteria, with particular focus on materiality and risk.
He emphasised that this important document, which will provide strategic direction to the office for the coming five years, was ultimately the result of an extensive consultation process both within the office, essentially involving all NAO employees, as well as with other external stakeholders including permanent secretaries across the public sector.
This strategy document may be accessed either through the National Audit Office website at www.nao.gov.mt, on its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/NAOMalta, or via Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/company/naomalta/.