Prime Minister Robert Abela said that he will stand by what the National Audit Office (NAO) reported about the Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) agreement while also emphasising that the VGH agreement should be kept separate from the contract that the government has with Steward Healthcare.

He was answering a number of questions that were put forward by members of the media who swarmed around him during a press conference on Wednesday morning after Tuesday evening’s revelations on the VGH agreement through a report from the NAO.

VGH had won the concession to run three state hospitals, St Luke's, Karin Grech and the Gozo General Hospital, but the concession was later transferred to Steward Health Care.

On Tuesday evening, a NAO report concluded that the hospitals privatisation deal was predetermined and that the documents provide "proof of collusion with government or its representatives."

The NAO said its immediate concern was the agreement that parties representing the government reportedly entered into an agreement prior to the request for proposals (RfP) with a subset of the investors of the VGH. "The overlap between this Agreement and the concession was clear and created major doubt and concern regarding the integrity of the eventual concession."

Its concerns were heightened in light of government's reluctance to provide it with a copy of the agreement.

In a statement sent to the media soon after this report was released, former Health Minister Konrad Mizzi said that he was not involved in a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2014 between the government and some VGH investors, and that the government should publish the agreement.

On governance and responsibility on the hospitals project, Mizzi said the report and the conclusions of the evaluation committee, as well as the contracts that were eventually signed, were approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. In fact, the Cabinet was involved in all stages of the contract and signed all contracts."

On Wednesday morning, PM Abela was asked if he thinks that Mizzi is lying by saying that the Cabinet knew of the RfP seeing that the NAO reported that the Cabinet had no idea.

He said that he will stand by what the NAO said but did not disclose whether he thinks Mizzi is lying. He added that he would have done things differently if the VGH agreement was to be procured under his leadership.

Energy Minister Michael Farrugia, who was also present at the press conference, was asked the same question and he reiterated that he will stand by the NAO report.

The NAO report also made it clear that the RfP adjudication process was grossly defective.

When the PM was asked what contractual implications this will have with the agreement that the government has with Steward, Abela said that the VGH and Steward situation must be kept separate.

Asked if he thinks that Steward could be doing better than it is, Abela said that he cannot say he is completely pleased by what the company is doing but “we cannot deny the good they have done."

He added that he would have done things differently if the VGH agreement was to be procured under his leadership.