The Nationalist Party will hold a protest outside parliament on Wednesday evening to demand accountability for the way the people were robbed through the hospitals concession, Opposition leader Bernard Grech said on Tuesday.

Grech announced the plan after Times of Malta said it would be publishing articles related to the concession, as part of a joint investigation together with the OCCRP and The Shift. 

The PN leader described this as "a moment of truth" and said those who had acted against the people would not be allowed to slip away. 

Grech spoke during a parliamentary debate which was meant to discuss the financial estimates of the Housing Authority but ended up becoming a debate on the Vitals/Steward Health Care hospitals concession, with MPs ignoring appeals by the Acting Speaker to stick to the agenda item.

It was the court itself that had declared that the contract between Vitals/Steward and the government fraudulent, he said.

Government MPs over the years did everything they could to defend the contract inside and outside the law courts. But once the facts were established and the evidence was clear, they were trying to change the narrative.

Now they were saying they were not the ones responsible.

Grech slams Abela and Fearne

Robert Abela was saying that upon his appointment, he had done "the right thing". But the right thing was according to the script written by Joseph Muscat.

The same applied to Health Minister Chris Fearne, he said, telling parliament that on January 21, 2020, the Cabinet had agreed a waiver of the financing agreement and performance guarantee for Steward, at Fearne's request. 

Steward under Abela, Fearne and Finance Minister Clyde Caruana were paid a 'fee' of €49 million and then made a profit of €6 million from taxpayers' money.

In February 2021, Fearne and Clyde Caruana presented a memorandum to Cabinet seeking authorisation to settle an agreement with Steward Healthcare. They were supported by advice from the state advocate.

The government, according to the auditor's report 'was to pay a sum exceeding €25 million as settlement to the claim to the healthcare budget increase."

Fearne has argued that the payment was made following legal advice. 

This had happened when the concession agreement was already being contested in court and the government had been told that the concession agreement was fraudulent, Grech said. 

"Chris Fearne and Robert Abela cannot wash their hands of this deal now," Grech insisted. 

Karol Aquilina: Abela was a central figure

Earlier, Nationalist MP Karol Aquilina accused Labour MPs of being fraudsters by having repeatedly approved millions in funding to Steward.

Amid interruptions, the sitting was briefly interrupted.

When it resumed, Aquilina said the auditor’s report showed several scandalous events including the 2020 waiver to Steward Health Care from performance guarantees and financial obligations.   

Aquilina insisted that Prime Minister Robert Abela could not distance himself from this scandal. Rather he was a central figure. Steward were paid €128 million under the Muscat government and €280 million under Abela.

This, when Abela had been told by Steward itself in a September 2021 letter, that the Vitals concession contract (which it had taken over) was fraudulent.

Aquilina insisted that both criminal and political responsibilities needed to be shouldered, and yet, he said, the justice minister did not even want an investigation.

Interjecting, Justice Minister Jonathan Attard denied the claim.

Concluding, Aquilina again insisted that the prime minister must assume political responsibility for what had taken place.

Jonathan Attard: PN engaging in spin

Replying, Justice Minister Jonathan Attard accused the opposition of exaggerations, spin and lies.

The people could see how the government acted responsibly and in the national interest whereas the Opposition, through a report to the police, wanted to see the prime minister imprisoned.

“You will need to walk over us to imprison the prime minister,” he said.

It was true, Attard said, that the auditor’s report indicated areas which could have been better handled, but it was an important fact that after the hospitals concession was transferred to Steward, the Robert Abela government had acted in a clear and consistent manner in the national interest.

It refused to renegotiate the contract (as requested by Steward) and insisted that the concession contract had to be honoured.

The report itself noted the new direction and how the government had considered its options. 

The government was equally firm when Steward wanted to abandon its operations on its terms, to the extent that the matter ended up before the International Chamber of Commerce, where the government has already won a procedural issue.

The government was also taking a firm position against Steward in its appeal from the court decision (which annulled the concession deal).

Attard said the government would also resolutely counter anyone who tried to harm Malta’s reputation abroad, as Steward was trying to do, even attempting to put the independence of Malta’s judiciary in doubt.  

The minister insisted that the Opposition was wrong to claim that the court, or the auditor, had attributed any fraud to the government.

As for the payment to workers, Attard pointed out that along with government workers who continued to work in the hospitals operated by Steward, other employees had also been engaged directly by Steward.

Other speakers on Tuesday included Nationalist MPs Stephen Spiteri and Darren Carabott and parliamentary secretary Andy Ellul.