The Nationalist Party has filed a judicial protest against Prime Minister Robert Abela, amongst others, over the Steward Health Care deal, demanding that the government must stop “stealing money from people’s taxes and return the hospitals to the public.”

The concession to run the three hospitals - Gozo General hospital, St Lukes and Karin Grech - was transferred to Steward Health Care was transferred from Vitals Global Healthcare a few years ago. In 2018, Adrian Delia, then the Opposition Leader, took the government to court claiming that the deal with VGH was fraudulent and should be terminated immediately. The case is ongoing.

The protest filed on Friday was submitted by Opposition Leader Bernard Grech and Delia on Friday.

Speaking during a press conference on Saturday, Grech said that the Labour government and the Prime Minister have neither the courage nor the political will to make a decision in favour of the Maltese people.

“Robert Abela is still associated to the original sin committed by Konrad Mizzi when this agreement was reached. Robert Abela remains complicit, along with the Labour parliamentary group, with its predecessors,” Grech said.

He highlighted that unlike the government, the Nationalist Party is determined to change this reality.

“We want to stop the theft of millions from this country’s people and as a result we filed a judicial protest. It’s now clear, more than ever, that the government is not spending our money wisely,” Grech said.

The claims made against the deal of it being mired in fraud and corruption, are not being made solely by the Nationalist Party but also by the Auditor General as well, as it was stated that the contract contains violations of the law, Grech said.

“We believe that a contract containing a breach of law is invalid. Thus,  it is unacceptable that the government is spending worthless money on such an agreement."

"The government cannot be justified in spending millions of euros on a contract it has long known is a violation of the law. Steward itself is stating that the contract is based on corruption and fraud,” Grech added.

Adrian Delia insisted that if the government doesn’t renounce the Steward Healthcare hospitals deal till the budget vote in parliament, any MP who votes in favour of the budget will be breaking the law, by voting in favour of a “corrupt deal” that was deemed corrupt by the contractor itself.

“We are witnessing an unprecedented situation in our country. We have never seen deputies in government know that a contract is marred by corruption and fraud, but still choose to give their consent and pay a criminal contract,” Delia said.

The budget contains elements of expenditure and Delia highlighted that there is a total of around €23 million – 50% more than last year, that will be voted upon to be given to Steward.

Delia insisted that the government cannot be allowed to steal and spend millions of euro from people’s taxes.

The time for words has now moved to the time for action, Delia said.