Steward’s trail of debt continues as court orders €159,000 payment to security firm

The Court has ordered Steward Malta Management Ltd to pay nearly €160,000 to private contractor Signal 8 Security Services for unpaid services at Gozo General Hospital and Karin Grech Hospital, in another judgment exposing the trail of debts left behind by Labour’s fraudulent hospitals concession.

In his decision, Judge Mark Simiana rejected all of Steward’s arguments and confirmed the company owed the private firm €159,388  for security, clerical, storekeeping and fire marshal services supplied in 2023.

The court heard that Signal 8 – a politically connected security firm – had continued providing services at Gozo General Hospital and Karin Grech Hospital even as Steward’s concession with the Maltese government collapsed amid legal and political turmoil.

According to the judgment, the unpaid bills dated back to January and March 2023 and covered services rendered at both hospitals.

Steward attempted to avoid liability by arguing that responsibility for some of the payments lay with the Health Ministry and the Central Procurement and Supplies Unit (CPSU). It later claimed that it ceased being responsible after terminating the hospitals concession in March 2023.

However, the court dismissed those arguments outright.

It ruled that the contracts produced in court clearly showed Steward had contracted directly with Signal 8 and remained personally responsible for payment. The court also noted there was no evidence Steward had properly terminated its agreements with the contractor even after the wider concession collapsed.

The latest judgment forms part of a growing list of creditors pursuing Steward Malta through the courts after the controversial concession imploded.

The concession was originally granted by disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in 2015 to Vitals Global Healthcare, a company with no major track record in hospital management, before being transferred to US-based Steward Health Care in 2018 for €1.

The deal, described as “the real deal” by then Health Minister Chris Fearne,  who is now facing criminal proceedings in court,  covered St Luke’s Hospital, Karin Grech Hospital and Gozo General Hospital.

In February 2023, the courts annulled the concession following a legal challenge filed by former Opposition leader Adrian Delia, describing the deal as fraudulent and heavily criticising the manner in which public assets had been transferred to private operators. The government subsequently was forced to take back control of the hospitals.

The hospitals concession has since become synonymous with Labour’s corruption, secrecy and mounting unpaid debts.

On its part, the securitry firm Signal 8 was also recently in the news.

Owned by Jovan Grech, a former police officer with strong connections to the Labour administration, Signal 8 attracted controversy over recruitment practices at Gozo General Hospital.

The Shift revealed how Signal 8 was used as a recruitment agency through which relatives of Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela were placed on the Gozo Hospital payroll.

Signal 8 also surfaced in separate reporting concerning vetting standards and nepotism after Chris Mizzi from Nadur, known as “il-Lilly”, was employed as a security officer at Gozo Hospital through the same company, which has a financial arrangement with the Health Ministry.

Mizzi’s recruitment happened just weeks after he was released from a French prison and handed a suspended sentence for trafficking nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas.