Nationalist Party leader Alex Borg lambasted the government for the outcome of an international arbitration tribunal case between Steward Healthcare and Malta, saying that only did Malta come away with nothing, but it has been asked to pay Steward another €5 million.

On Monday, the government said that a tribunal within the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) had rejected Steward Healthcare's claim that the government had unlawfully terminated the hospitals concession agreement.

But it also said that the arbitration decision awards no damages to either side. "According to the ICC award, the total benefits received by the Government of Malta stand at €889,434,091 while the benefits received by Steward Healthcare stand at €884,644,629, with a shortfall of €4.78 million owed to Steward Health Care," the government said.

The full ICC decision is yet to be published.

In a press conference in the late afternoon, Prime Minister Robert Abela said that the decision had confirmed that “the government acted with skill, competence, and full knowledge of the facts to defend the interests of the Maltese people” and said that it had rendered the PN’s narrative on the topic as a “farce.”

“This decision confirms that the narrative that Malta paid hundreds of millions for services never rendered was a farce, a fabrication sold to the Maltese public,” Abela said.

However, speaking in Parliament later in the day at the start of his Budget reaction, Borg said that the decision had simply confirmed that the government had not managed to get back a single cent from the hospitals deal.

“Without anyone seeing the decision, the government is proclaiming a victory: what victory? What did you get back?,” Borg questioned.

He noted that Malta had paid €900 million as part of this contract, and €400 million of that was meant to go towards new hospitals for the country. “Go to Gozo and see where the €400 million went and whether we have a new hospital,” Borg said, as he said that the same can be said for both Karin Grech, St Luke’s Hospital.

“We cannot see the contract, but we can see the hospitals and the lack of investment,” Borg said.

“Stop taking the people for a ride; the people can see that nothing was done on these hospitals,” he added.

Borg said that the Prime Minister had promised that he will get every last cent back from Steward; that the government will defend Malta in the arbitration proceedings. “But we ended up with nothing.  Not just that, but we’ve been asked to pay €5 million more… that’s the result,” he said.

He said that the government is obliged to tell the country what requests it made to the tribunal and what evidence it had put forward, calling the result achieved “shameful”, and saying that the PN will still remain on the side of the people and ensure that people’s money comes back to Malta.