It is the taxpayer who is paying for the Vitals Global Healthcare scandal, as millions of the public’s money have been stolen, the PN said on Monday in reaction to the latest story exposing dealings around the hospitals deal.

The PN’s statement follows an article in the Times of Malta about the Vitals scandal, where it was reported that large amounts of money were being shifted out of Vitals in the days immediately after the hospital received multi-million-euro payments from the government.

Over €21 million was transferred from Vitals to a company called Bluestone Investments between 2016 and the first two months of 2018, with this stopping only a few days before the American company Steward Healthcare bought the concession from Vitals, according to the report.

Corporate records showed that government funds flowed into Vitals before being sent back to Bluestone.

The PN said that Prime Minister Robert Abela, instead of focusing on how to recollect the millions that are being stolen from the public’s money, is turning towards his ministers to see how they will cut €200 million from this year’s Budget.

The party said that since Vitals was being paid by the Maltese and Gozitan taxpayers, the same taxpayers now expect to get their money back, particularly in the midst of the challenges which society is currently facing.

The Nationalist Party insisted that the taxes paid by the public are used appropriately and called on the Minister for Health and Minister for Finance to immediately explain where these millions of euros went, as well as answer the people’s questions about whether an investigation will be opened and what steps are being taken.

The statement was signed by PN MPs Adrian Delia and Jerome Caruana Cilia.