Editorial

Not so long ago the government started talks with Skanska over the spiralling costs of building the Mater Dei Hospital. The Prime Minister has publicly declared that such costs and the time it was taking Skanska to complete the project had become unacceptable. There had been a hike in the estimates that Skanska had presented to the Foundation for Medical Services for the hospital's completion. His government, he declared repeatedly, was not prepared to foot the bill for the inefficiencies of others. "We have to draw a line."

The government meant that and has since made sure Skanska read its lips. Earlier this month Dr Gonzi suspended negotiations with the company but was wise enough not to close the door. Instead he let it be known he was willing to meet Skanska's top officials but was equally prepared to terminate the contract in the absence of a satisfactory outcome.

Dr Gonzi has maintained his strong stance speaking bluntly on the matter. Costs were analysed in detail and a number of aberrations surfaced. The more this was revealed the firmer became Dr Gonzi's conviction and determination not to put up with matters as they had developed.

The Times is four-square behind the Prime Minister's efforts to conclude the Mater Dei saga once and for all. Skanska has so far shown no sign of being in full agreement with Dr Gonzi. The presence on the island of Stuart Graham, Skanska president and CEO, for talks is thus a welcome development.

It is shameful that during this delicate period, when negotiations were taking place to bring order back into the development of the project and even as the government awaited Mr Stuart's arrival, the Labour opposition adopted a public stance that hardly coincided with the sentiment of the big majority of society. A price of Lm250 million being noised around by the opposition is high enough without increasing it by appearing to undermine, however unwittingly, the determination of the government to cap the price and to demand from Skanska a completion date. An open-ended time scale for completing the project is unacceptable.

The Skanska project has been bedevilled by crisis. Both political parties have been involved in the building of the Mater Dei Hospital, which started off, under a Nationalist administration as a 400- bed affair focused on research and illnesses related to Mediterranean countries. The objective was to add to the hub the government was attempting to make out of Malta. At the time, the Labour Party in opposition regarded it as a luxury. When it took over government in 1996 the decision was taken that, far from scrapping the place, as had seemingly been its intention before the election, to more or less double the hospital's footprint in the sense that it would now have 850 beds. The price, not unnaturally, escalated.

What is at issue now is Skanska's acknowledgement that something has to be done about cost and about a completion date, failing which the company would have to pay penalties. Errors by either party in the process have no bearing on the negotiations that start today. Mr Stuart is, no doubt, well briefed on the position but so is Dr Gonzi. They will talk business but Dr Gonzi has one up on Mr Stuart: he knows the Maltese people are behind him because they want their hospital delivered to them ASAP, even if that means terminating the contract.