The NGO Moviment Graffitti has strongly condemned the Government for its attempt to spin the arbitration tribunal’s decision on the hospitals concession as a victory.
In a statement, the NGO said that the Government’s “triumphalist propaganda is all the more pathetic when compared to the blunt statement of the International Court of Arbitration, which had no qualms stating that the concession ‘sadly turned out to be failure whose primary victims are the citizens of Malta.’”
It said that every official who tried to win political points by selling this unequivocal statement of failure as a “victory” should hang their head in shame.
“Every attempt to spin the result as anything other than a damning judgement of the Government’s behaviour in granting and overseeing the concession is nothing but a transparent betrayal of the public whose interests it is duty-bound to protect,” the NGO said.
The tribunal’s decision does not alter Moviment Graffitti’s long-standing position that the privatisation deal was a flawed and corrupt process with a profoundly negative impact on Malta and its people. “It has enriched the few at enormous public expense, while the country lost out on years of investment into its health infrastructure.”
“The decision does however provide fresh insights on the Government’s absolute failure to protect the public interest, primarily by refusing to terminate the concession, or deduct payments, once it became clear that the concessionaire was unable to fulfil its commitments,” the organisation said.
It continued that the refusal to act on the public’s behalf over the years culminated in the tribunal’s most consequential finding: that the Government, having never raised any complaint whatsoever throughout the lifetime of the concession, cannot now claim that the services provided were lacking all along.
“The Government, having actively collaborated to mask Vitals’ and Steward’s flaws, could not credibly argue that those flaws were evident all along. The tribunal therefore dismissed the Government’s claim to recoup €488 million, finding ‘no compelling evidence’ for the claim,” the organisations observed.
“It is clear that despite all the attempts to spin the arbitration tribunal’s decision as a victory for Malta, it is anything but,” Graffitti said.
It noted the old saying: success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. “However, we insist that this years-long saga will not simply be dismissed as a tragedy in which no one is to blame,” the NGO continued.
“We know who the architects of this corrupt deal were. We know who colluded with Vitals, championed Steward, and repeatedly showed that their loyalty was to those fleecing the public.”
Moviment Graffitti therefore called for haste and courage in the ongoing prosecution of all those involved in turning Malta’s healthcare system into a private cash cow.
“We also call for all privatisation deals in which Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri, Chris Cardona, Joseph Muscat, and Projects Malta (now Malta Strategic Partnership Projects) had any role to be investigated to determine whether fraud or corruption played any part in the process. These include, inter alia, the AUM concession, the sale of the former ITS site to db Group, and the Electrogas and security of gas supply agreements,” the NGO said.
“Should an illicit nature be found in any of these deals, we expect the assets so disposed of to be taken back into state ownership, and criminal proceedings to be brought against those involved, no matter their current or previous position,” it concluded.