In a particularly vitriolic press conference Robert Abela lambasted the Opposition for taking legal steps to recover hundreds of millions funneled to Steward. Amongst the hysteria, Abela made one pertinent point - “whoever erred must pay for his actions”.
Abela erred on an industrial scale. Financially he caused Malta more damage through the Steward debacle than Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri put together. He’s not only complicit. He’s responsible. And he must pay. Here’s why.
Labour’s excuse for hiving off half our health service to the private sector was that Malta didn’t have the money to invest in our health service. Malta needed foreign investors’ money. Labour bragged the concessionaire would invest 200 million euro. The least Labour could do was ensure the concessionaire actually had money to invest.
Abela took over in January 2020. He knew Steward had no money. He knew Labour’s cabinet had granted Steward repeated waivers. Steward was contractually obliged to provide performance guarantees, financing agreements, and evidence of its primary lenders. Steward didn’t. It had been breaching its contract since it took over in 2017. And Labour let it.
Abela knew this. He was Joseph Muscat’s legal advisor. He knew Steward had to borrow millions of euro from Bank of Valletta. That alone should have alerted cabinet that these “investors” didn’t have a penny.
Instead of kicking them out, Labour assumed responsibility for Steward’s debts and overdrafts, with our money.
When Abela got to Castille, Steward had failed not only to cough up the 200 million euro investment, they hadn’t even provided evidence they had any money at all. Instead of taking that concession back from them, Abela gave them another waiver. In one of his first cabinet meetings on 21st January 2020 Abela agreed to give Steward more time to provide evidence they had any money to invest.
Steward had three whole years to hand in their financing agreements. They still didn’t.
Yet Abela embarked on negotiations to strike a “more bankable” concession for Steward. Abela was even willing to grant Steward a direct contract despite knowing they were broke.
Only the intervention of the Department of Contracts and State Advocate stopped Abela in his tracks. Both indicated that his plan to give Steward a more lucrative deal couldn’t proceed as “this would constitute government granting a direct contract to Steward Healthcare which was not permissible” according to the NAO.
In his cabinet meeting of 14 April 2020, Abela was explicitly told Steward still hadn’t submitted the bond they were contractually obliged to. Steward, Abela was reminded, was in breach of contract.
Abela still refused to kick them out. Instead he transferred tens more millions to Steward and continued negotiating.
Who in his right senses pays hundreds of millions to a company that failed even the most basic of its contractual obligations? Abela was well within his rights to register concessionaire events of default and start the process to take back our hospitals. He refused to do so.
The NAO noted that “Steward healthcare’s failure to effect the capital expenditure… stunted the advancement of health services provided and in the case of St Luke’s Hospital resulted in the dereliction of the facility”.
Abela’s excuse for not kicking Steward out was the 100 million euro termination clause Joseph Muscat and Konrad Mizzi had secretly struck with Steward. That’s an utterly lame excuse. That clause was illegal. Muscat and Mizzi engineered that deal by “misleading cabinet” according to the NAO. Abela could easily have contested that payment and refused to cough up. In fact when Abela was finally forced to take back the hospitals, thanks to Adrian Delia’s court case, Malta didn’t pay Steward those 100 million.
Abela is bragging that he’s contracted renowned private Maltese and international lawyers for the international arbitration. He could have got those brilliant lawyers to dispute that 100 million euro clause. Abela’s legal advice was kept secret even from the NAO. Why? Maybe because it suggested the 100 million termination clause wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.
Even if we assume Malta had no choice but to pay that 100 million, we’d still have saved hundreds of millions, had Abela done the right thing and kicked bankrupt Steward out in 2020. In 2023 alone Abela planned to give Steward another 80 million. By the end Abela had handed 257 million euro to Steward out of our taxes.
Why on earth did Abela keep protecting Steward?
Because he had Muscat breathing down his neck. As soon as Abela took over, Muscat was rushing up Castille’s stairs.
Abela couldn’t face the nation and tell them Steward wasn’t the real deal after all. He couldn’t tell us Joseph Muscat engineered that 100 million termination clause because he was expecting to get hundreds of thousands from Steward via Accutor AG. He could hardly tell the country Labour wrecked the health service because of its leaders’ greed.
Abela had to protect Muscat’s not Malta’s interests. He couldn’t turn down the demands of the man who put him in power.
Maybe Abela was just too scared. After all he knew how far Muscat’s friends could go. Fearne knows he stops at nothing. Fearne’s so terrified for himself and his family he’s asked for parliament’s protection.
One thing’s certain - Labour’s hospitals concession was a gargantuan fraud. It’s cost the nation years of progress and countless millions. Look where we’re at - farming out emergency services to the private sector which couldn’t be more ill-equipped to deal with such a critical part of healthcare.
And yet, Robert Abela has never once apologised, never once acknowledged the devastating consequences of Labour’s fraud. To do so would mean denouncing and condemning Joseph Muscat. And Abela is too terrified of what Muscat might do, of what information he might leak about him. Or what new fabrications Muscat’s friends might concoct. Abela’s so scared of Muscat he hasn’t dared take his Sa Maison office, his Maserati, his diplomatic passport or Michelle’s Range-Rover.