This weekly paper is indeed a paper about business but it is not a paper about business in a vacuum. In other words, what is happening in the world and what is happening in Malta are all important to it and doubtlessly to its readers.

It tries very hard to avoid the usual political or rather partisan ping-pong that seems to be what the Maltese like doing on a daily basis.
But then there are issues one simply does not avoid.

At present one of the hot issues in Malta (for indeed, unfortunately, there are others) is the Vitals Healthcare  mess.

To recoup: Vitals was chosen to take over the management of the Gozo General Hospital, the St Luke's Hospital and Karin Grech Hospital - three of Malta's limited number of hospitals. It was presented as a Public-Private Partnership that would restore and upgrade the three hospitals, all needing refurbishment and upgrading.

To cut a long story short, for all the funds that government passed on to them, nothing much was done. Then, practically on Christmas Eve, it was suddenly announced that Vitals had passed on the job to an American hospital company. At least this time, this is a real hospital company with a track record to boast of.

But we, and the country with us, will definitely not take up the suggestion that Minister Chris Fearne (who was not involved in the original deal) made: to stop looking back and to look towards the future.

No. There are many issues that need to be analysed and examined.

First of all, the country must get a clear unadulterated copy of the contract (that is, not the hugely redacted one that was palmed off as such and presented to Parliament).

Secondly, the timelines must be clarified. According to Caroline Muscat, writing yesterday on The Shift News, "Four months before the government had issued the Request for Proposals for the Malta hospitals concession, the investors who eventually won the bid had already signed an agreement among themselves with very specific details related to the concession."

"In November 2014, Ms Muscat wrote, "a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between "on the one hand Dr Ambrish Gupta and on the other hand Dr Ashok Rattehalli in respect of  AGMC Inc (a US company owned by Rattehalli), Sri Ram Tumuluri in respect of Portpool Investments Limited (a BVI company) and Mark Pawley in respect of Bluestone Special Situation #4 Limited (the BVI company that purportedly won the bid)," according to court documents."

The Request for Proposals by the government was issued in March 2015, and yet in November 2014 the investors' agreement states that Rattehalli, Tumuluri and Pawley through their respective companies have "entered into an agreement with the Government of Malta to build, develop and manage [a] world class healthcare facility in Gozo."

One must remember that all through this saga, the name/s of the Ultimate Beneficial Owner of Vitals has never been revealed. The names of the people associated with the venture were not known in healthcare circles. And there is a theory that one issue that may have spurred the sudden termination of the Vitals management of the three hospitals could have been the coming into effect on 1 January of an EU directive that enforces revelation of the UBOs of companies.

The country must also be given an account of how the money spent by the government and  given to Vitals was used. Maybe too the country must also get to know whether Vitals made a profit for themselves out of the deal.

Government spokespersons have said that the money went to finance salaries of the people employed by the hospitals but then others have said the employees were paid out of government funds. If so, what happened to the rest of the funds?

There must be a full and exhaustive investigation into all this and, sorry, we do not trust this investigation to be carried out by offices and persons who in one way or another fall subject to the government. We do not want another investigation that whitewashes things and all come out smelling as roses. Only an institution that is completely outside the grip of the Maltese government should be entrusted with this investigation - and saying this speaks volumes about present-day Malta.