Minister for Health Chris Fearne today formally asked the Public Accounts Committee to invite the Auditor General to scrutinise the contracts signed between Vitals Healthcare and the government for the running of the Gozo hospital.

The request was presented to the clerk of the House of Representatives, hours before the PAC discusses these contracts. The Minister has asked the Auditor General to investigate the contracts and to see whether the contracts represent good value for money.

The Auditor General would also be tasked to see whether the building and introduction of new facilities would help the health services of the country improve, that working conditions and rights of employees are respected, and if the deal would yield any economic benefit for the country. It would also see if the government will have an effective regulatory role in the process.

MAM and UHM both had requested that these contracts are investigated by the Parliamentary Health Committee. Minister Chris Fearne had presented a 60-page version of the contract with the PN insisting that the contracts should be published in full.

In statement, the Ministry said that the government has nothing to hide. He added that the project would be adding the number of beds to 450 in Gozo, a rehabilitation centre and a centre for medical tourism. Mr Fearne said that this agreement would benefit the country and the healthcare system.

When interviewed by The Malta Independent, Professor Albert Fenech, who is both a member of the Medical Association of Malta and sits on the Vitals Global Healthcare Medical Board, has criticized MAM for not sitiing down with VGH to ask their questions directly to them. He also said that the government should disclose the contracts with VGH to Opposition leader.

In a statement, the Nationalist Party said that after months of resistance to publish the contracts signed for the privatisation of the three hospitals, the government has now said that they should be investigated by the Auditor General.

The government was doing this not because it believes in the investigation but because it knows that such an investigation cannot be completed before the election, the PN said. The Auditor General has a huge workload and will not finish the investigation in time.

The PN said it will not allow the government to use the excuse that the Public Accounts Committee should not discuss the contracts on the grounds that the matter is under investigation by the auditor general.

The PN as well as the Medical Association of Malta and the UHM Voice of the Workers have for long been insisting that the contracts should be made public.