Finance Minister Edward Scicluna would not say if he was willing to rescind the controversial hospitals’ concession agreement, saying this deal had been negotiated within the parameters of public procurement regulations established by Nationalist-led governments.
Prof. Scicluna was replying to a series of parliamentary questions from Opposition MPs Jason Azzopardi and Karol Aquilina in the wake of the latest controversy surrounding this concession given in 2016.
The questions were made in connection with a Malta Today story which said that Vitals Global Healthcare boss, Ram Tumuluri, had awarded himself a €5 million bonus despite the company accumulating huge debts. This bonus was given in 2017 to mark his third year at the helm of Vitals, which had been given a 30-year concession to run three State hospitals – Gozo, St Luke’s and Karin Grech.
In return Vitals received around €50 million per year from taxpayers’ funds, and to date the sum which government forked out under this concession is of around €240 million.
However, after failing to deliver on its contractual commitments which included investing €200 million in new medical facilities, Vitals transferred its concession to US group Steward Health Care in late 2017.
Dr Azzopardi asked the finance minister if he agreed with this €5 million bonus, if he agreed with a proposal filed by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on behalf of Steward to renegotiate the deal, and what measures he had taken following the news of the €5 million bonus.
In his remarks, Prof. Scicluna insisted he had nothing to do with the deal, saying it had been negotiated directly by State entity Project Malta in line with public procurement regulations which had been in place before Labour was elected to government in 2013.
“It was done by a different ministry. I negotiated nothing with him [Mr Tumuluri]. Projects Malta negotiated with him on the strength of public procurement regulations which had been there before,” he said.
His reply prompted remarks from across the floor with Opposition MPs protesting that it was unfair that the government was blaming “them” for such an “obscene agreement”.
The finance minister added that millions being paid to US group Steward Health Care were covering wages, salaries and consumables.
“It is not our problem, if despite accumulating debts Vitals decided to give this bonus,” he remarked.
Asked by Opposition MP Karol Aquilina to say directly if he agreed or not with this concession, the finance minister declined to give a clear answer while referring to his earlier reply.