New evidence has been brought to the Government's attention regarding the issue of inferior quality concrete at the A&E department of Mater Dei Hospital, the Health Ministry has said.

The Ministry for Energy and Health has re-constituted the Board of Inquiry, chaired by Mr Justice Emeritus Philip Sciberras to report on the said new evidence.

No information was given as to what this new evidence is.

The original inquiry, also headed by Justice Emeritus Philip Sciberras, concluded that it would be “naive” to consider that the previous government did not know what a dire state the project was in, particularly considering that the minister responsible for the hospital, Louis Galea, was also President of the Foundation for Medical Services at the time.

The inquiry Board had said it was “evident” that the defective concrete found to have been used could not be the result of a “genuine mistake or failure of oversight,” but must have been the result of “concerted efforts from which the contractor, suppliers and possibly third parties benefitted.”

It also had enough evidence to conclude that tests carried out by the contractor at the time were fraudulent.

A peculiar testing system for the concrete was used during Mater Dei construction, in that instead of the Works Division collected samples from the contractor as is the norm, it was the contractor that delivered the samples to the Works Division.