Former minister Konrad Mizzi maintains he did nothing wrong when negotiating the privatisation of three public hospitals, despite a damning investigation report by the Auditor General.  

On Tuesday the National Audit Office published a scathing audit report which found a succession of serious shortcomings in the process to award Vitals Global Healthcare a 30-year concession to run Gozo General, St Luke's and Karin Grech hospitals.

Contacted on Tuesday afternoon Mizzi maintained his innocence and said he wanted all the information in the public domain "in the interest of transperancy".  

Cabinet approved every contract

The NAO found that no minister had authorised the deal, with the blame resting “squarely” on Mizzi.  

Asked for his position on this, Mizzi denied that the responsibility rested with him.  

He said that when an evaluation committee presented a report on the project to cabinet, ministers had given it the thumbs up.  

"In fact cabinet was involved in every stage of the process and approved every contract that was signed," he said.   

Mizzi resigned from cabinet in November 2019 in the midst of a political crisis triggered by the 2017 assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. He was ousted from the Labour parliamentary group in June. Today he is an independent MP. 

Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne was the first cabinet member to distance himself from the Vitals deal. 

"I had nothing to do with negotiations which may have taken place before the RfP [request for proposal] which the auditor general mention and was not informed of them. I didn't even know the MOU existed," he wrote on Facebook on Tuesday evening.

Fearne, who was a parliamentary secretary responsible for health at the time of the deal, said the NAO report was "very concerning". 

Mizzi denies collusion 

The report concluded that VGH should have been barred from bidding for the privatisation deal because of "collusive behaviour" between the government and the company, through a secret agreement made before the tender was even issued. 

Mizzi points finger at Economy Ministry and Malta Enterprise

Mizzi denied that he had colluded with any of the parties involved in the project. He urged the government to “immediately publish any relevant documentation which is referenced in NAO report". 

The NAO noted that its interest in the secret agreement was heightened when the government did not hand over relevant documentation.  

Asked about the collusive behaviour referenced in the report, Mizzi said that, at the time, “engagement with prospective investors” was carried out by the Economy Ministry and Malta Enterprise. 

This, he said, was related to “a very different project related to Gozo General Hospital”.   

“The Ministry for Energy and Health was not involved in any way,” he said.   

He added that when this project was presented to him, his ministry had turned it down and this was communicated to the investors by Malta Enterprise. 

The report says that the concession appeared to be “predetermined to ensure an already agreed outcome”.

Delia asks 'who will speak up?'

Meanwhile, speaking in parliament shortly after the publication of the report, Opposition leader Adrian Delia asked whether the Prime Minister, Finance Minister, Health Minister or Mizzi would be reacting. 

Replying on behalf of the government, Labour whip Glenn Bedingfield said the report had just been tabled in the House and it was still being reviewed.  

Delia slammed the government over the report findings.

“Now we know that: the process was an illegal one, the request for proposals was illegal, the finance minister was not informed about the payments of millions in public funds, cabinet was not informed about the request for proposals. We also know there was collusion between government and Vitals and that no due diligence of substance was carried out,” Delia said.