Carmen Ciantar, who tendered her "suspension" from the post of CEO at the Foundation for Medical Services on Wednesday after a Pakistani news portal report claiming that she had received a bribe, has asked to testify before the magisterial inquiry looking into the hospitals' deal.   

The Daily Pakistan reported on Wednesday that Ciantar received several payments totalling €443,500 from Gozo International Medicare Ltd between October 2015 and February 2016. It read that the payments are linked to a deal in 2015 when Sri Ram Tumuluri's firm, Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH), won a privatisation tender to manage three hospitals in Malta. The news portal claimed that the information came from leaked banking documents, which indicated there were at least 15 invoices submitted to Gozo International Medicare by Ciantar.

In her court application to Magistrate Gabriella Vella, Ciantar made reference to the 'completely unfounded' and 'untrue' accusations levelled against her.

Ciantar notes that she suspended herself as CEO of the Foundation for Medical Services with the aim of freely protecting her integrity.

It also states that on 1 June, she wrote to the Police Commissioner personally, asking him to initiate a full investigation into her, and offered her full and unconditional cooperation for this to happen.

As such, she said she wants to go before the inquiry to testify and subject herself to any examination by the magistrate, in order for her (Ciantar) to be given the opportunity to clear her name from the allegations.

She asked the inquiring magistrate to accept her request by calling her to appear and answer questions.