Prime Minister Robert Abela should take steps against all those involved in the deal which transferred three public hospitals to the private sector, a deal which is costing the Maltese people millions of euros without any return, Opposition Leader Adrian Delia said today.

Addressing the media, he said that the Procurement Evaluation Report which was submitted in court this week during a sitting of the case instituted by the Opposition showed the various flaws of the deal which the government tried to keep hidden from the people.

Delia said that it was clear that the tender document was drawn up so it could be given to someone specific who, ultimately, could not honour it. "This is more than corruption", he said before noting that it was pre-meditated for the consortium to fail and make millions from the Maltese taxpayer.

The evaluation report, copies of which were handed to the media, had been kept hidden by the government, Delia said, having only been made available because it was submitted in court by the Evaluation and Adjudication Committee chairman James Camenzuli.

The government, Delia said, had kept the report under wraps so as to hide the premeditated theft that the tender was drawn up to be.  He said that it is clear and evident that the committee did not carry out the obvious scrutiny required to see that the Vitals could provide the service it was promising.

Vitals Global Healthcare had originally taken over three public hospitals – Gozo, Karen Grech and St Luke’s – but had then transferred the concession to Steward Healthcare which, Delia said, was being assisted by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in negotiations with the government to rake in more financial help.

The Maltese government was paying more and more money to Steward – increases which ranged from €20 to €50 million per year, Delia said, but the investors had not spent any money whatsoever.

Delia said that he wanted to hear answers from Finance Minister Edward Scicluna on why those increases keep happening every year and where exactly the money is going, and that he wanted to hear from Health Minister Chris Fearne on how much more could be done for Maltese patients if that money was given to them instead of these foreign, private investors who had in fact invested nothing whatsoever themselves.

Finally, he said that  he was expecting Prime Minister Robert Abela to take immediate action against those who were all either directly involved in the process, or complicit in it by staying silent.