Top officials facing disciplinary action over health centres debacle

Two senior health officials are facing disciplinary action, which could lead to their sacking, over serious misconduct, mismanagement, and illegalities regarding the refurbishment of two health centres carried out during former health minister Chris Fearne’s time in office.

Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela refused to answer questions about how the refurbishment costs of the Qormi and Birkirkara health centres ballooned uncontrollably, citing ongoing investigations.

He told PN MP Ian Vassallo in Parliament that he could not give any details, as disciplinary proceedings against health officials were ongoing.

Sources confirmed that the two health officials involved were Roseanne Camailleri, the CEO of Primary Healthcare at the time, and Alfred Farrugia, the Chief Financial Officer. They are being held responsible for alleged gross mismanagement.

The Shift is informed that Farrugia, 64, has been suspended from work, while Camilleri may be sacked. Both were appointed by former Minister Chris Fearne in 2017.

Last August, Minister Jo Etienne Abela removed Camilleri from the position of CEO of Primary Health Care and assigned her a new position at Mount Carmel Hospital. Unlike Farrugia, she has not been suspended so far.

Health Ministry sources told The Shift the investigation may be passed on to the police for possible economic crimes, including corruption and misappropriation of public funds. Both Camilleri and Farrugia deny the accusations.

Disciplinary action started following an internal probe by the Health Ministry looking into how projects that should have cost a few hundred thousand euro ended up costing taxpayers millions.

For example, in the case of the Qormi Health centre, an initial quote for €56,000 obtained without a tender, ended up costing close to €1 million, with most of the works carried out without a contract. Similar patterns were noted on works carried out at the Birkirkara health centre.

The same company—GM Developments — was involved in the works at both health centres. The company is owned by Simon Grech, a close acquaintance of Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri, and is already involved in public health services through different businesses.

When questioned, Grech did not explain how he had submitted his quotes five months earlier than his competitors. But he admitted that CEO Roseanne Camilleri and CFO Alfred Farrugia kept tasking his company with additional work and signed the approvals.

The CEO of the health centres blamed her CFO and other officials under her wing for breaching public procurement rules and mismanagement.

She said that she did not discuss the details of the multi-million-euro projects but signed the documents forwarded to her by the CFO.

The investigation’s evidence, which the Health Minister has not published, shows that Camilleri endorsed 10 GM Developments invoices for payment, some of which were also signed by the financial controller.

Camilleri insists that she was under the impression that works were awarded through a tender, that she was not involved in the procurement process, and that she signed invoices after the financial controller assured her everything was in order.