The allegations about corruption in the building of the Mater Dei hospital, made by former PN president Frank Portelli, were the latest chapter in a saga of wasted public money, the MLP said yesterday.
Every decision taken by the PN government in relation to the hospital has been characterised by doubts and dark shadows, it said.
The scandals, said the MLP, began under the leadership of Eddie Fenech Adami and continue today under Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s government. It said questions started arising before 1996, when the contract was issued and the deal was signed with a consortium that quoted a price that was Lm2 million higher than the lowest bid.
The MLP also said that the company Mixer Ltd was never identified as being affiliated to the company that won the tender, but it began supplying concrete for the job and had been taken over during the negotiation period by Bastjan Dalli, brother of former minister John Dalli.
Another scandal concerned the contract for medical equipment. The MLP said that the Lm30 million contract was awarded to an Italian company, even though three months earlier the same contract with the same company had been annulled.
In addition, one of the companies that missed out on the tender engaged the services of a private investigator to conduct an inquiry into the issue. This person then presented a report on the matter to the Prime Minister that turned out to be false and he was subsequently imprisoned.
The MLP said that former minister John Dalli claimed that the report had been withheld from him and he suspected it was the reason why he was required to step down.
In summer 2004, there was more to add to the pot, said the MLP, because Prime Minister Gonzi engaged the services of two of his cousins to re-
negotiate the deal and the family tie was never declared.
The MLP said the next scandal came when someone on the evaluation committee was allegedly found to be passing sensitive information to a company that was interested in providing the equipment. Two people are facing charges in connection with this matter.
All these facts showed that the Mater Dei Hospital confirmed that successive PN governments, including the present one, were not interested in making sure that public funds are spent properly in a transparent and accountable manner, the MLP said.