Prime Minister Robert Abela doesn’t have the strength to be able to defend the Maltese people, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech told the Malta Independent on Sunday when asked about calls for the government to retrieve funds that were given to Steward Health Care.

A Maltese court in February had annulled the concession agreement that was originally signed with Vitals Global Healthcare, later taken over by Steward Health Care, ruling that three public hospitals are to be returned under government control. The three hospitals in question are St Luke's, Karin Grech and the Gozo General Hospital. Steward has filed an appeal, but is pulling out of Malta.

The Nationalist Party has been putting pressure on the government to take the necessary action to get the money that had been given to Vitals/Steward back, and Prime Minister Robert Abela said that the government will seek reimbursement from Steward Health Care for funds given to it for investments that didn’t materialise. 

Responding to questions in an interview held on Wednesday, Grech said that to be successful in such action, “you need a decisive government that doesn’t keep changing what it says.”

“You need a government that doesn't give Steward the tools to defend itself or attack the government, as unfortunately Robert Abela is doing. You need to have a Prime Minister who is free from all kinds of agreements that are now obvious and public, but also from agreements that might have been made behind closed doors for him to be placed there.”

The Nationalist Party offered the Prime Minister its “cooperation on a platter,” he said. “We offered, from the beginning, that we will support him if he opened a case against Steward to recover the millions they took from us without making any investment in return. It is a case only he can open as he is the Prime Minister of the country. But until today, Robert Abela is playing with words to avoid doing his duty.”

The hospitals case was brought forward by a PN MP, Adrian Delia, who was the leader of the party when he filed the case, Grech stressed. “The hospitals were returned thanks to the PN," but now the second step to get the money back, he said, is up to government. “It is their duty and only they can do it,” Grech said.

Grech accused the government "of playing with words to escape from doing this when saying 'we don't know the amount' or that 'we will retrieve what was meant to be invested and which we paid for'."

"Sorry, so you didn't know what you were paying for?”, he quipped.

He referred to the €80 million allocated in the 2023 budget to Steward Health Care. "We voted against it and told you (the government) not to continue giving them money, but you kept giving them money. You (the government) continued voting against the Opposition's motions,” Grech said. 

"Now Prime Minister Abela has told the Auditor General to investigate how much the amount should be. So they didn't know how much they were paying? They didn't have any idea what payments were being made? This shows the gross incompetence by Robert Abela's government,” Grech said. 

Responding to other questions related to the hospitals saga, Grech said that the judge “told us clearly that this was a fraudulent deal, a deal that was filled with major shortcomings. This deal was signed by two sides, Vitals Global Healthcare at the time and the government, and subsequently Steward came in."

Grech said that VGH and Steward did not fulfil their obligations towards the Maltese people, and that the government also didn't "in these past eight years, during which it kept defending the deal and kept defending VGH and Steward." 

He described the current situation. “On one side you have Steward attacking government, and it also appealed the court decision, and on the other side there is the government trying to throw everything onto Steward. But the government knows Steward made no investment in the country. The government knows that all that was promised by VGH and Steward was not carried out, and they've known it for a long time. They knew they didn't start building a hospital. They knew nothing happened with St Luke's."

“Today we have a situation where both sides are responsible for this corrupt and fraudulent deal, and both of whom are now battling each other.”

Asked what he believes should happen to St Luke’s, Grech said that the PN wants St Luke's to be used to support Mater Dei. 

Grech mentioned the Mater Dei concrete scandal.  

In March 2020 it was reported that the Maltese government withdrew a claim against Swedish construction company Skanska over works at Mater Dei Hospital. The government had earlier said that inferior quality concrete had been used. But a tribunal had found the government had no legal standing. It was reported that the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law ruled that since Malta had signed a waiver which freed the construction company from any future liability over the hospital, the government could not proceed with its compensation claim.

Air Malta

 Grech was also asked about what is happening at Air Malta.

“The government has an obligation to come clean about the present situation,” Grech said.

“Why doesn't the government want to discuss an issue that is so important in Parliament,” he asked.  

"It worries me to see the government concealing information and evading a parliamentary debate. It worries me as evidently there is a problem… as there was a plan we drew up and started operating when we were in government in 2012, and since then a number of Labour ministers over the past ten years abandoned that plan and went off in different directions,” he said. “One minister took Air Malta one way, another took it another way. One minister introduces a destination, another removes it. They had no idea where they were going to take Air Malta.”

“Finance Minister Clyde Caruana first told us that Air Malta is a fireplace burning money, but then if the European Commission accepted that support could be given, he would have thrown money at it. They don't have a vision.”

Earlier this week, he said, the airline’s chairman, David Curmi, said that by the end of the year Air Malta will close and a new company like it will open.

“He didn't tell us how Air Malta will address its obligations or the service that Air Malta provides to the Maltese people. He didn't say which routes will be kept and which won't. He didn't say what the business model will be. He said absolutely nothing.”

In the evening of that same day, Grech said, Minister Clyde Caruana “said something completely opposite to what the Chairman said. The Air Malta Chairman, and Minister Clyde Caruana aren't even agreeing between themselves about the present situation. One said Air Malta will close and a new airline will open, and the other said that discussions with the European commission are still ongoing. It is evident that there is a leadership problem.

"Before saying what we will support, we want to know what it would be."

The PN’s priority, he said, is for the airline to have a business model that makes sense and is managed properly. “We cannot afford not to have a national airline.”

Told that various governments mishandled Air Malta, not just limited to recent years, he said he recognises "that there could always have been difficulties and shortcomings, but surely not a problem as serious as this when it comes to direction.”

He said that when the PN was in government, there was a programme approved by the European Commission in 2012 which it had started to work on.

“The (Labour) government was then elected and abandoned it. They themselves said it, that at first everything was doing well and then a minister said that those before him had abandoned everything, referring to Labour ministers."  

As for how the political parties should treat Air Malta or a future national airline differently, he gave “the guarantee that decisions will be taken wisely, would be in the interest of the national interest and would not be tarnished by or weakened due to political interests.”

Parliamentary decisions

The PN had two requests turned down in Parliament this week. The party called for an urgent parliamentary debate on the call for a public inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia, and the next day for one on Air Malta. The Speaker of the House, Anglu Farrugia, turned down both requests. Abela was asked if the Speaker holds his trust.

“The discussion didn't take place as the government didn't accept,” he said.

“Many times in Parliament we would have agreement to discuss something that is not on the agenda.”

“We wanted the discussions, the government didn't and so I, as per Standing Order 13, had to turn to the Speaker to provide a decision. The Speaker agreed with what the government wanted.”

“So is it possible for me to have faith in the Speaker who is just there as a gatekeeper for the government? Who has not understood that he is there to represent and run the highest institution of the country for the benefit of the Maltese and Gozitan people according to the constitution? That is why we had voted against him being re-appointed Speaker,” Grech said. He added that Farrugia “is not there to, as evidently he is doing, continue accommodating and helping the government.”

PM’s letter to chief justice

Turning to the letter Prime Minister Robert Abela wrote to the Chief Justice about the "totally unacceptable" delays regarding the magisterial inquiry into Jean Paul Sofia, Grech called it ‘a gimmick’.

He said that a magisterial inquiry on its own will not solve the problem the country has when it comes to construction, "where once again there was a person who died for simply being there."

"We already had the death of Miriam Pace. We were meant to have learnt from that," he said, adding that Robert Abela had given guarantees about making reforms and changed the laws. "If he keeps with the mentality that he will not enforce in order for things to be done as they are meant to, then we have a Labour government that is on the side of the strong and not on the side of the weak."

Grech said that Jean Paul Sofia died through no fault of his own. Sofia's mother, Isabelle Bonnici, wants a public inquiry as she wants not only to know why he died, but to see if there were other shortcomings that we can learn from so that another tragedy like this will not happen again, Grech said. “Robert Abela continues to be stubborn and tries to use the magisterial inquiry to convince everyone that there is no need for a public inquiry.”

As for the letter, “you realise that it is a gimmick as, in order to speak to the Chief Justice he doesn't need to write a letter. Secondly, if he had done it with good intentions he wouldn't publish it. So he did it only to try and show how strong he is,” Grech said. 

Elections

The MEP elections will take place next year. Asked about the party’s targets, he said: “I made it clear after the last election, when I was reconfirmed as the party leader, that we need to look at the third seat as we need to improve our performance as a party in the MEP elections,” he said.

“Reducing the gap between the parties is definitely important. We want to reduce the gap as much as possible as we want to send the message to the electorate,” he said.

Grech added that the election is also a chance for the electorate to send a message to the two parties. He said people are angry “over the way the government lost control in many sectors, and the way Robert Abela looks weaker each day.” He said that it is evident that Abela and the government don't have solutions for a number of issues there are in the country, mentioning Air Malta and also the sectoral agreement dispute with nurses. 

Asked if he would stay on if after the MEP elections the number of seats remain 4-2 in favour of the PL, he said he is “focused on improving our performance. I don't want to speculate on what could happen. But I already said that I will again go before the party councillors if the result is not one that is satisfactory. At the end of the day I am here for the good of the country and party. It would be useless for me to stay if I no longer function wouldn't it?"

Presidency

In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday earlier in April, President George Vella had expressed his concern that he may have to stay on in his post if the government and Opposition fail to reach an agreement on his successor.
Asked whether the government came up with a name for him to consider, and whether he envisages a situation where no agreement will be found, Grech said he found the President’s statements ‘interesting’.

President Vella “knows how hard-headed Robert Abela is, and how difficult it is to talk to him (...) The President's term expires in less than a year. Prime Minister Abela has not even spoken to me, or approached me or sent for me to start talks. Maybe that is why the President is worried, as he knows that Robert Abela, unfortunately, doesn't want a discussion.”

“We have an obligation to the people to find a successor for President George Vella. I remain open for discussions. There are constitutional regulations and I am ready to do my utmost, and look forward to finding agreement for the benefit of the people. But agreement doesn't mean that the Prime Minister has to always have his way.”

That is why, Grech said, he had insisted on discussions being secret and that it should not be divulged as to whether it is the PM or Opposition leader who is suggesting names of people to be appointed in important posts, and that there be a single declaration. “The Prime Minister broke all these conditions while we were discussing the Ombudsman and Standards Commissioner posts.”

“When we go public and say we agree on a person, that means we would have reached agreement. When we go public and reveal who suggested whom, that is a game played (by the PM) in order to get his way.”

Standards Commissioner

Asked about the Standards Commissioner, Grech said that the PN had said why it was against Chief Justice Emeritus Joseph Azzopardi’s appointment.

“Joe Azzopardi is as nice a guy as one would want, but we don't want to base a decision for a Standards Commissioner on that. We want a Standards Commissioner who would continue raising the level of that important role. If you want proof of how right we were, it is the decisions he is giving. So far he gave three decisions that are not decisions.

“He said three things in which he said nothing, which continues to confirm how Joe Azzopardi is not suitable for this role. The moment that Joe Azzopardi rises to the level befitting that institution, starts taking decisions without any interference and truly uses the teeth needed as a Standards Commissioner, I will be the first to declare that we were wrong about Joe Azzopardi. But until now, through his actions he is confirming what we were saying.”