Vitals Global Healthcare is being charged just €100,000 annually for the 30-year multimillion-euro concession to run three public hospitals, the Times of Malta was told.
According to clauses in the contract that were redacted by the government when the document was tabled in Parliament, Vitals was expected to fork out just €3 million for the concession covering two State hospitals in Malta and one in Gozo, industry sources said.
The government’s negotiators, headed by former Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, who at the time was politically responsible for health, also accepted demands by Vitals to stagger the payments over 10 years from the start of the contract, they added.
Read: How government guaranteed a ‘no-risk’ investment for Vitals
It is not yet known whether Steward Healthcare, the American company which, according to the government, bought the concession from Vitals, will have the same condition or whether the government will renegotiate the clause.
Questions sent to Dr Mizzi, who is still responsible for the private-public partnership with Vitals, on whether any payments related to the concession fee had been made so far remain unanswered.
READ: €1: The price Vitals paid for three hospitals' contents>
Likewise, requests by this newspaper to have a copy of the €9 million performance guarantee Vitals was bound to make before the start of the contract and to declare who the primary bankers issuing the guarantee were also got no replies.
When pressed on this issue a few days ago, Dr Mizzi only said Vitals had made the guarantee, adding he forgot which bank had issued it.
Vitals got more than €50m in payments since July 2016
Read: The big sell-out: what we know about VGH deal
The Sunday Times of Malta has published significant parts of the government’s blacked-out contract, including details about payments the government bound the exchequer to pass on to Vitals or the new concessionaires.
The contract says the government agreed to pay Vitals about €180,000 a day or over €2.1 billion in 30 years to hire hundreds of beds and medical care facilities at the St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals.
READ: Hospitals MOU was secretely signed months before call for tender
Vitals was given the right to use the same facilities for medical tourism purposes, pocketing all profits from this area. It also emerged that to reclaim land title on the Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals, the government would have to pay €80 million.
The government also guaranteed that at the end of the concession, Vitals or the new concessionaires would be guaranteed payment of all their debts and loans and, if the government terminated the concession itself, they would receive an additional €100 million over and above all their loans and debts. The government is known to have already passed on to Vitals more than €50 million in payments since July 2016.
Read: The idiot’s guide to the Vitals’ scandal - Kristina Chetcuti
In contrast, Vitals did not meet any of the milestones stipulated in the contract.
Although they were obliged to provide a new medical campus in Gozo and additional beds in both the St Luke’s and Karin Grech hospitals, this has yet to happen.
Construction work on a campus in Gozo has not started, and only minor excavations have been made.
The government announced a few days before Christmas that Vitals had sold the concession to an American company, with Health Minister Chris Fearne describing the deal as “the real one”.