Dr Sant said this during a live radio show broadcast on Super One Radio yesterday. He said the Nationalist government duped both itself and the people of Malta and Gozo about the hospital.

He said that just a few months ago, Health Minister Louis Deguara claimed that everything was on track but in his statement yesterday, Dr Gonzi confirmed that not all was well.

Dr Sant also claimed that Dr Gonzi’s version of events was full of loose ends. He also questioned how much the hospital was eventually going to cost and how bound to this figure Skanska were.

He said that the Lm43 million that will be spent this year would already bring the total cost of the project up to Lm151 million. The cost therefore cannot be Lm139 million as the government was saying

Dr Sant said the government also needed to give an account of how much had already been paid to Skanska and how much they are still owed.

He also said that the Lm139 million mentioned seemed like a dubious figure. “The Malta Labour Party will in the coming days press government to be more clear because Prime Minister Gonzi made various clouded statements,” he said.

Dr Sant said the government did not manage to get what it wanted out of Skanska and had to settle on an unclear arrangement. He also asked why Dr Gonzi was unwilling to make things public if any confidential developments break through with Skanska.

He said Dr Gonzi’s statement clearly showed the Malta Labour Party was correct in saying that it was wrong to award the entire contract to one particular company.

“What the MLP had warned against has happened,” he said. Over the years, Skanska had the facility to change its fees at any given time without any problems, he said.

Between 1996 and 1998, Skanska offered the MLP the same contract, but the Labour government decided against it. “We wanted a situation where the design, building and supervision were carried out by different companies to be able to make our checks and balances,” said Dr Sant.

He said both Dr Gonzi and Dr Deguara were in Cabinet when the original sum of Lm83 million was first mentioned.

He also referred to a hospital built in the UK, which is larger than Mater Dei, as an example. “It was completed within four years and at a lesser cost than our new hospital,” he said.

Dr Sant said that in past years, 2003 was earmarked for the opening the hospital. “Now it’s 2007.

The PN is using this period, which is an electoral year, to try to score points,” he said.

Dr Sant concluded by saying that PN needed to clear things up for the sake of the Maltese and Gozitan people. “The whole story has not yet come to light,” he said.

Dr Sant said MLP would be meeting to discuss the issue and its stance on the issue would be announced later.