Carmen Ciantar has decided to return to her post as CEO of the Foundation for Medical Services, saying in a statement on Monday that "truth and my integrity have won out over the massive and moneyed dark forces which tried to annihilate both."
Ciantar had suspended herself from her job after a Pakistani newspaper two months ago claimed she was the beneficiary of a huge bribe by the people behind Vitals Healthcare, at a time when the company was negotiating the hospitals deal with the government.
The Daily Pakistan had claimed that a company linked to Sri Ram Tumuluri, the CEO of UK-based Causis Group and a director of VGH, made several undeclared payments to a senior Maltese official linked to the 2015 hospitals deal. The report said Ciantar received a total of €443,500 from Gozo International Medicare Ltd’s account at the Dubai-headquartered Emirates NBD Bank.
Ciantar always denied the claims, also pointing out that she was not employed by the foundation at the time.
Days later, a separate allegation appeared on a Ukrainian blog, alleging that Ciantar's daughter received €3.2 million from a wealthy Russian who, it was alleged, had been helped by Health Minister Chris Fearne to acquire a passport.
That allegation was recirculated by a Brussels-based website that has been linked to disinformation campaigns.
Ciantar has since testified in a magisterial inquiry concerning the hospital privatisation deal and urged police to investigate the corruption claims.
Police have not charged her with any crime and it is not known whether they probed the allegations.
"When the totally false but grave allegations about me and my daughter hit the headlines I immediately suspended myself from the post of CEO at FMS to be able to fully and serenely defend my integrity, that of the Health Ministry and the entire government," Ciantar said in a statement on Monday.
"I then went to the Police Commissioner as well as to the Magistrate scrutinising the VGH and Steward contracts to offer them my full and transparent cooperation in all the investigations they wished to conduct. And that’s what they did.
"I walked in with head held high and that’s how I walked out.
"Today, two months after this horrible ordeal started, I stand tall. As a lone individual, as a woman, I managed to thwart the evil plans of dark and hidden forces which are much, much bigger than me."
She thanked her daughter, family, friends and colleagues at FMS who stood by her.
She said that terrible as this experience was and despite the heavy toll it took on her, it nevertheless strengthened her confidence that truth and integrity cannot be vanquished.