Steward Malta ordered to pay €154,000 for unpaid hospital meals

The scandal connected to Labour’s hospitals concession continues to unfold as the beleaguered Steward  has now been ordered to pay more than €154,000 for hospital catering, adding food supplied to patients and staff to the list of unpaid bills left behind by the former hospitals operator.

In a judgment delivered by Judge Mark Simiana, the Court dismissed all Steward’s defences and ordered it to pay Malta Healthcare Caterers Ltd €154,072.18, together with commercial interest running from 5 April 2023 and legal costs.

The ruling follows earlier judgments ordering Steward to settle outstanding payments for security, cleaning, water and electricity, among others.

The catering debt covered €32,844.34 for services at Karin Grech Hospital, another €24,562 arising from catering price increases relating to 2022, and €96,665.84 for services at Gozo General Hospital.

Steward sought to shift responsibility onto the government, arguing that the caterer’s contract for Karin Grech was with the public authorities and that its payments depended on funds received from the Health Ministry.

The court rejected both arguments.

Although the government had signed the underlying Karin Grech contract, Steward had subsequently accepted responsibility for payment. That undertaking created an obligation which it could not simply shed.

The court also found that Steward received a fixed sum from the government to cover its subcontractors. Its duty to pay the caterer was not conditional on the government first paying Steward.

The judge found no evidence of any such condition.

Steward further argued that it was not responsible for services after 18 March 2023, when it maintained its termination of the hospitals concession took effect.

But the court reiterated that ending the concession did not automatically extinguish separate obligations towards suppliers.

In doing so, Judge Simiana expressly relied on his May judgment ordering Steward to pay Signal 8 Security Services, noting that the decision had not been appealed.

Crucially, the catering company had already excluded charges for services after 5 April 2023, following arrangements under which government-controlled Malta Health Ltd assumed responsibility from that date.

Steward also challenged catering charges by claiming there was no inpatient service at St Luke’s/Karin Grech.

The judge found that the invoices identified specific food items and that the evidence established their supply. Steward produced no evidence rebutting that testimony.

The latest award follows reported orders to pay €159,388 to Signal 8, more than €283,000 to utilities provider ARMS and €841,000 to cleaning contractor Zenith.

Together, the cases document unpaid bills for basic services required to keep the hospitals operating under Steward’s management.