If a serious attempt isn’t made to try and recover the money given to the hospitals concessionaire, then this will lead to the suspicion of a cover-up, President of the Medical Association of Malta, Martin Balzan told The Malta Independent.

Contacted on Friday, Balzan said that “it’s the responsibility of the government to recover the €400 million” that was handed to the concessionaires between 2016 and 2021.

“If there isn’t a serious attempt to try to recover the €400 million, at least by legal means,” then this will lead to “the suspicion that this is not being done to cover-up for somebody, somewhere.”

“I want to see the government of Malta seriously attempting to recover the money in the name of the Maltese citizens,” said Balzan.

“As an association, we’ve been very vociferous over the last 7 years and I even testified in court as a key witness. I think now we’re being proven right,” Balzan said.

In a report presented to Parliament last Monday, the National Audit Office said that €456 million were handed over by the government between June 2016 and 2021.

The government has been under fire over its past dealings with Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) and Steward Health Care, more so since the court ruling last February. VGH was the original concessionaire which took over the running of St Luke’s, Karin Grech and the Gozo General hospitals. Steward Health Care took over the concession in 2018.

In the 24 February judgment, the courts nullified the deal, with Mr Justice Francesco Depasquale describing it as “fraudulent”.  Steward Health Care appealed the sentence, but a day later said that it would be terminating the concession and leaving the country.

Following the presentation of the National Audit Office’s report, on Wednesday, The Times of Malta, The Shift News and Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project published an investigation that revealed that former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is being investigated for a consultancy contract with a Swiss company that could have been used to disguise payments deriving from the Vitals-Steward hospitals deal.

Balzan had previously told this newsroom that the interests of the Maltese public were “definitely not” protected through the hospitals deal and that, at best, “members of government were naïve, at worst they were in cahoots with the scam. This is a matter for investigations to find out”.

“We want the government to recover the funds. If you give money to someone to build and refurbish a property, and it is not, then go to court and the contract is rescinded, the money has to be paid back. We feel that it is the government's duty now to get as much of the funds back as it can,” Balzan had previously said.

President of the Malta Union for Midwives and Nurses Paul Pace was also contacted for a comment on the latest revelations into the Steward-Vitals hospitals' concession agreement.

"To be fair, for me nothing is new. We knew that this was coming out," Pace said.

Pace said that he has nothing to add to what he said during a press conference held by the union in front of Castille two months ago. He had said that nurses and midwives were the real victims of the "fraudulent Steward hospitals concession," as the government forked out millions to Steward, but is now telling nurses and midwives that there is no money for them.

Pace also referred to the latest revelation from the Times of Malta story about the NAO report which revealed that the Health Ministry was worried that if it had to end the agreement, then the government would have to pay Steward €200 million.

Pace expressed how shocking it was to hear that the NAO report revealed that if the €200 million had to be paid then this would lead to “possible disruption of public health services”, according to the ministry’s permanent secretary."

"You can see why it was an uphill battle for us," Pace added.