When a private company issues a vague statement which sounds like it is coming directly from the PR guys at Castile, I seriously worry. I am referring to the press release issued by Vitals Global Healthcare as a reaction to the press conference which I addressed along with Chris Said and David Thake on Tuesday afternoon.

The information we gave in the press conference, and the subsequent questions we raised, were addressed to the government. Emphatically not to Vitals. No serious company would ever dream of getting involved in the political debate between two political parties. Actually, no serious government would push a company to expose itself in such a manner.

Let me stick to the undeniable facts:

1.     The companies set up in Malta by Vitals were registered between the 13th and 18th of May 2015. The very next day, on the 19th of May, Konrad Mizzi announced that Vitals was one of the preferred bidders to take over three of our hospitals – Gozo General Hospital, Karin Grech Hospital and St Luke’s Hospital.

2.     The contract between Konrad Mizzi (on behalf of the Government of Malta) and Ram Tumuluri (on behalf of Vitals) was signed on the 30th of November 2015. A mere two days later (2nd December), Karl Cini from Nexia BT gave Mossack Fonseca the go-ahead to open the bank accounts. This we know through the Panama Papers revelations.

3.     Konrad Mizzi continued to sign agreements (including the side letter signed on 19th May 2016, which was published by Daphne Caruana Galizia on her blog) when he was no longer Minister for Health.

4.     Court documents from the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Canada, reveal that Ram Tumuluri was involved in tax evasion (a tax called GST, which is the equivalent to our VAT). He also destroyed (or spirited away) the accounting records of a hotel he was involved in. He made off with the deposits made by the hotel’s customers for their Christmas holidays. Under our law, all three are very serious crimes, all punishable by jail.

The obvious questions which arise from these facts are many.

Since the mother company of Vitals is a PO Box company in the British Virgin Islands, we will never know who is actually behind this deal involving our hospitals.

The only name which continues to pop up everywhere is Ram Tumuluri’s, a shady character (to say the least). The British Columbia Supreme Court sentence is very damning.

If we had an honest government, it should put the whole deal into question. Do you remember the promise made by Joseph Muscat, before the general election, that his government would not deal with people who are blacklisted and that all companies and individuals involved in deals with the government would be subject to scrutiny including due diligence?

Where is that promise now? On the rubbish heap with the other broken Taghna Lkoll promises.

Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi, Chris Fearne, Ram Tumuluri and Vitals would all like me to stop talking about this multimillion deal, which stinks more than the Maghtab landfill (whose stench has literally grown stronger thanks to Taghna Lkoll’s incompetence).

They would like me to talk about other issues, such as the numerous red herrings they are throwing our way to distract us from the real dirty stuff that is going on in our country.

My answer to them is loud and clear. “No, I will not shut up.”