Most reasonable people expect their government to use the money they pay in taxes judiciously in the community’s interests. When taxpayers have to keep financing failed mega-projects they need to ask hard questions of their political leaders. They also expect to be given credible answers.
The privatisation of the management of three public hospitals in 2015 ranks as one of the most expensive projects ever undertaken by any government. It is also arguably the biggest failed public project. Between 2018 and the end of next year, taxpayers will have paid €300 million to Steward Health Care to run the three hospitals.
The reasons for this massive waste of taxpayers’ money can be traced back to the way that former prime minister Joseph Muscat arrogantly ignored sound public governance principles by concentrating spending decisions in the hands of a few elites who formed part of his kitchen cabinet.
The present prime minister, Robert Abela, served in the cabinet as an adviser to Joseph Muscat. He now has the embarrassing and onerous task of trying to clean up the mess.
He claims to have learnt of a 2019 agreement to pay Steward €100 million, if the concession is rescinded, only after it was signed.
So far, the government crisis-management tactic has been not to acknowledge the extent of the damage caused to taxpayer interests by the Steward saga.
Instead, it glosses over the failure of this privatisation project, resorts to understatement when challenged to define how it will get the hospitals back under public control, and adopts the political stance of kicking the can down the road.
Abela has “threatened” to take legal action if Steward breaks the deal.
This is not the way to limit the damage that this failed project is burning in taxpayers’ pockets.
Finance Minister Clyde Caruana, who is usually a straight talker, resorted to understatement when describing the present impasse in talks between the government and Steward. He said: “There is evidence of some works (having been done by Steward) but it is not what one was expecting.” What the taxpayers were expecting was the hospital operator to stick by its commitment to make the €220 million investment to revamp the decrepit health facilities.
Opposition leader Bernard Grech is emulating the action taken by his predecessor Adrian Delia and kept up the pressure on the government to terminate the deal. In reference to talks being held with Steward on the latter’s request for yet more taxpayer money, Grech told the prime minister to terminate the contract now.
“You know Steward cannot honour the contract – they have breached it since day one – and yet you are about to give them a further €70 million.”
Most people may be too busy dealing with their day-to-day affairs to understand the implications of the failure of this huge project.
Taxpayers’ money wasted today must be refinanced in the coming years to keep public services functioning at the level that people expect.
Instead, the government is hoping that some future administration will resolve this massive problem, and in doing so, is making the problem even bigger. This is not in the public’s best interest.
It is bad enough that no one has so far been held accountable for this mega mess. Unfortunately, the mindset of this administration is to sacrifice accountability on the altar of political expediency.
Abela needs to abandon his mantra of continuity. He must define his plans to bring the three public hospitals back into public control and stem the losses. He owes it to the taxpayer.