Former Labour MP Konrad Mizzi has described the National Audit Office’s report into the hospitals’ concession agreement as “pure conjecture, irresponsible and blatantly false.”

The National Audit Office published a report, on Monday, which is the third and final part of a wide-reaching audit into the concession awarded by the Government to Vitals Global Healthcare Ltd (VGH) in relation to the Gozo General Hospital, St Luke’s Hospital and Karin Grech Rehabilitation Hospital – a concession which later passed to Steward Health Care.

The report revealed that Mizzi “engineered” the side agreement which would have seen Steward receive €100 million if the hospitals concession was terminated by “misleading Cabinet.”

Mizzi took to Facebook on Monday, where he explained and defended his position.

Contrary to what the report says, Mizzi said that on 26 August 2019, he had “briefed Cabinet that terms for credit facilities from BOV were discussed and that BOV was seeking additional safeguards.”

“The memorandum to Cabinet clearly stated that in the event of a court declaration of nullity of the concession, government would become liable to pay the lender’s debt and would trigger a government event of default,” Mizzi said.

“This was deemed necessary following discussions with the Ministry of Finance, Bank of Valletta and other stakeholders. Lengthy discussions took place in Cabinet on the implications of both lender’s debt and a government’s event of default, and I answered all questions raised by my peers, as the then Prime Minister who chaired the meeting himself confirms.”

“On the other hand, the NAO admits that it is not privy to discussions held by Cabinet. NAO’s conclusion is therefore pure conjecture, irresponsible and blatantly false,” Mizzi said.