The government and disgraced former minister Konrad Mizzi had lied to the media and the public about a €9 million performance guarantee that Vitals Global Healthcare was contractually obliged to supply.
The guarantee was to have been provided within 30 days of the concession’s signing on 30 November 2015.
A damning National Audit Office report published last Monday has confirmed that neither VGH nor its successor Steward Health Care had provided the €9 million performance guarantee in time while Projects Malta turned a blind eye.
But both Projects Malta – the OPM agency that administered the fraudulent deal and Mizzi himself had publicly declared that the guarantee was in place in 2018.
In January 2018, The Times of Malta reported that Projects Malta turned down a freedom of information request for a copy of the performance guarantee and the banking institution that had issued it.
Projects Plus CEO James Camenzuli said at the time that the performance guarantee was in place but “it needed more time to consult third parties before making a copy of the guarantee available.”
In February 2018, Konrad Mizzi also insisted that the performance guarantee was put in place by VGH shortly after the concession agreement was signed in 2015.
Asked to name the bank that provided VGH with the guarantee, Mizzi said he could not remember the exact name but that “it was a reputable international bank”.
In his recent disclosure to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, former VGH director Ram Tumuluri says the performance guarantee had been issued by Deutsche Bank on 2 March 2016, well after the deadline and after Mizzi and the government were saying it was already in hand.
The NAO report now confirms the performance guarantee had never been put in place by Steward and that both Projects Malta and Konrad Mizzi had blatantly lied to the public.
“SHC had not duly rolled over the performance guarantee put in place by the VGH in accordance with the concession agreement,” the NAO found in its report. “The SHC had instead provided the Government with a parent company guarantee.
Apart from Camenzuli, Projects Malta had William Wait, now Malta Enterprise chairman, at its helm while then finance ministry permanent secretary Alfred Camilleri was on its board.
According to the contract signed for the privatisation of the three state hospitals in 2015, the €9 million performance guarantee could be called in by the government at any time the contractor (VGH) was found to be in breach of its obligations. According to the contract, a failure to provide the guarantee itself could have rendered the contract null and void.
Sign up to our newsletter Stay in the know
"*" indicates required fields
Mental health consultants’ private practice left unchecked despite contract restrictions
€52,000 package for latest job of disgraced CEO’s daughter
Latest green wall revival withers within months as legal action remains a mystery
Forty-five per cent of students say they recently skipped an entire school day
Tags
#concession
#hospitals
#Konrad Mizzi
#Malta
#performance guarantee
#Projects Malta
#Steward Health Care
#VGH
#Vitals Global Healthcare
Other News
Mental health consultants’ private practice left unchecked despite contract restrictions
€52,000 package for latest job of disgraced CEO’s daughter
Latest green wall revival withers within months as legal action remains a mystery
Forty-five per cent of students say they recently skipped an entire school day
Former Tourism Minister questions manure plant on doorstep of Mellieħa Bay
Ċaqnu stopped from further destroying Balzan townhouses as tribunal overturns PA approval
NAO questions €12 million in sports grants approved without full scrutiny
Revealed: Muscat was referring to Evarist Bartolo as lobbying for his replacement
Clyde Caruana’s campaign manager lands another €45,000 in public funds
Muscat attempts to officially ‘dump’ Keith Schembri – From ‘best man’ to liability
NGOs Ask for Johann Buttigieg’s head
The crooks would’nt let a minor 9 million performance guarantee get in the way of their road map and their 400 million scam.
Goodness me and all people of goodwill. When is Conman Konrad and everyone else involved be sent to jail, without passing GO and certainly not collecting any prize money.
Democracy is not only at stake here but the total lack of good and transparent governance. The battle cry and promises of the PL in their run-up to the 2013 election were all blatant lies.
Hemm qieghed Dr Chris Fearne “prima fila”.
Therefore Gahans should keep in mind that they had been fooled, stolen for two election with the killing of journalist DCG. They’re guilty of murdering and corruption. It’s not the Christian way.
Kemm tifilhu tghaddu n-nies biz-zien? A bunch of corrupt liars – trademark of the muvument korrott imexxi minn nies bal ebda unur – ISTHU,
Democracy has gone to the dogs long ago in this country!
All those who supported corruption are CORRUPT.
It still baffles me how such a coup d?etat was able to not only occur but flourish within the EU.
It?s clear that Labour depended on (and still does) ignorance, lethargy bribery and incompetence – both ingrained and deliberately planted. An extremely cynical and mafia-like take-over by stealth.
Funny how should a local company not submit it?s bid bond and all guarantees, it would never get paid a penny yet the biggest contract ever went ?450 million under and nobody is in jail yet.,
The rot has permeated all nooks and crannies of this vile, corrupt, and inept government and, I’m afraid, every government department run by yahoos and every ministry over-staffed with persons of trust whose only qualifications consist of being lackeys and/or canvassers of their supreme boss, namely the corrupt minister!
I pity a government which succeeds this one as on its day one will start with a new 5 BILLION euro handicap, and will have to appear cruel when it turns to the taxpayer to chip in to start paying the debt amassed by this government and which has nothing to show for its blatant misuse of the taxpayers’ hard earned money.
I think I had somewhere heard that before now – but somehow cannot remember who had actually said it at the time.
And, of all the attributes you mentioned enabling this corrupt government to endure, lethargy is the worst.
Unfortunately there are more lethargic Nationalists then there are Labourites with the former more worried about who leads their Party than their own welfare and the country’s global reputation.
These fence sitters and know-it-alls have the largest responsibility to carry on their shoulders which they have been carrying since 2013. It’s about time to give themselves and all Nationalists young and old a rest, pull together, and not spite the young generations’ future.
When the country’s future is at stake, neglecting to do one’s duty amounts to no more than pure treason.
The sad answer to your question: not until the blind regain their sight. So long as more than half of the electorate continues to support blatant corruption and illegality, the brigands will continue to roam among us and flaunt their impunity. Any cries for the EU institutions or the Council of Europe, etc. to come to the rescue will echo hollow so long as their help is demanded without any conditions attached, in true Pirate Island fashion. People cannot be saved from themselves.
I have just to ask again, why the hell are we not outside parliament demanding resignations, it’s the only way, write and complain as much as you like , they really couldn’t give a frig, they’re not listening the only thing they read is their bank statement at the end of the month. the streets are calling, you better believe it!
Dan Il bniedem kriminal prim u sewwa lil poplu malti miljuni kbar imma Alla jbierek qatt ma jehel xejn ja xempju tal injoranza
Jiena niftakar nies ta’integrita kbira li kienu egoistikament jistennew favur mil-gvern nazzjonalista ta’dak iz-zmien li qatt ma kont nistennija meta titkellem maghhom. Mela il-gvern
Qieghed hemm biex jaghti. Dittaturi komunisti jaghmlu dan is-serq propjeta tal-publiku. Illum dawn it-tali, bl’intelligenza kollha taghhom’ kollha bl’ghola certifikati, x’inhuma jghidu. Mea culpa massima culpa. Dittatura komunista imhabba bniedem korrott kriminali.
Ma jafux jisthu ghax ghandhom l’injorant l’istupidu warajhom. Jafu li l’istituzjonijet go pajjizna huma mghafgga ghsl kollox. Jekk hallew bla misthija parti mil-qorti gudizzjarja ghax ukoll jipruvaw jhammguha. Kollu htija ta bniedem kriminali min demm komunista.