Bernard Grech has accused Robert Abela of doing everything within his power to ensure Steward Health Care did not lose its right to three state hospitals.
“This case was filed five years ago. Abela has been prime minister for three of those five years. He did everything he could to defend Vitals and Stewart. He did everything to ensure this case was lost [by Adrian Delia],” the Nationalist Party leader said on Wednesday.
Grech was speaking during a televised interview on PN station NET TV, hours after Steward announced that it had filed an appeal against a landmark deal that annulled its contracts to take over three state hospitals.
He expressed disgust at the state of governance of the country, saying it was only when things reached the law courts that the rule of law was upheld.
“No institution is doing its job as it should,” Grech said. “These are not trivial matters.”
He also reiterated PN calls for a public inquiry into the construction site death of Jean-Paul Sofia, who was buried alive when a structure in Corradino collapsed. Abela’s resistance to a public inquiry, he said, suggested the prime minister had something to hide.
“Jean-Paul Sofia was buried under rubble, but we will not allow Abela to bury the truth,” Grech said.
Parliament to debate PN Steward motion
While pressure for that public inquiry grows, the government also finds itself under pressure over its handling of the Vitals-Steward hospitals debacle.
Parliament will on Thursday debate a private members’ motion filed by Grech and PN MP Adrian Delia, seeking to force the government to sue Steward and the previous concessionaire, Vitals Global Healthcare, for money received since the contracts deemed fraudulent were signed.
Times of Malta has calculated that taxpayers forked out anything between €350 million and €448 million to the two companies between 2016 and 2022.
Abela has sought to pre-empt that debate, saying he will demand that Steward repay money intended for investments that never materialised.
Following Thursday’s parliamentary debate, the PN will be leading a protest against the deal in Valletta.
Grech urged people to make themselves heard and take part in that event.
“You need to show your disgust. You need to show Abela and his friends that enough is enough,” Grech said.
The PN leader said Steward’s decision to appeal the decision had shown up the government’s reaction to the landmark judgement as “a gimmick”.
The Labour government, he said, had tried to mislead and misdirect at every step of the way.
“The appeal will certainly delay justice for the Maltese people. But it will not end here. We will not allow Robert Abela and his government – all those in power from 2013 to today – to hide behind the appeal.
“They hid behind the redacted contracts, then behind their statements, then behind the police’s lack of action and they continued to hide when this case was filed five years ago,” Grech said.