Joseph Muscat has denied acting as a lobbyist or consultant for Steward Health Care, pushing back at a transparency and accountability report by the business lobby.

In a report published this week, the Chamber of Commerce used the former prime minister and construction magnate Joseph Portelli as two potential examples of how lobbying in Malta is not carried out appropriately.

The chamber mentioned a January 2020 meeting Muscat held with his successor,  Robert Abela and Steward Health Care president, Armin Ernst as one of the two examples to illustrate their argument.

The report said Muscat had “no legitimate purpose” as a backbench MP to be present at the meeting.

According to the report, Muscat’s presence at the meeting could therefore “only be explained if he acted as a lobbyist on behalf of Steward Health Care… or as a consultant engaged by Steward Health Care”.

An excerpt of the report mentioning Joseph Muscat and Joseph Portelli.

In a reply, Muscat dismissed the chamber’s hypothesis.

“Had it not crossed the report author’s mind that I would have attended the meeting as part of a handover from one prime minister to another,” Muscat asked.

Contacted via his lawyer, Muscat confirmed he was saying that he attended the meeting as part of a handover.

Muscat was also mentioned in another part of the chamber report for failing to declare a conflict or potential conflict of interest in his consultancy agreement with Swiss firm Accutor AG.

The former prime minister’s lawyer, however, said there was no conflict of interest, as there was no engagement relating to Steward Malta. The lawyer further added that Muscat had not participated in any parliamentary debates on the matter.

MPs are expected to declare any conflicts of interest they may have on legislation being discussed in parliament.

The former PM’s home was searched by police in January, in connection with the Accutor payments, over suspicions that they could be linked to corruption in the hospitals deal. Muscat had denied any wrongdoing.

The chamber report also flagged how Nationalist MP Mario de Marco had failed to declare that his law firm provided legal services to db Group, at a time when the opposition accused the government of leasing land to the Group at “uneconomic rates”.

Chamber blames Times of Malta

In an added twist, the chamber criticised Times of Malta for highlighting how its report had used Muscat and Portelli as two examples of potentially unethical lobbying behaviour.

Chamber president Marisa Xuereb said the article singled out two particular instances of several illustrative examples of potentially unethical behaviour or conflict of interest.

“Our report mentions by name several individuals, including politicians on both sides of the House. In the interest of fairness, allow us to insist that the names mentioned in our report are in no way the subject.

“In the spirit of ethical behaviour that the Malta Chamber advocates, we call out the singling out of these two particular examples as being distortive of the substance of this document,” Xuereb said.

Xuereb said the report, authored by David Spiteri Gingell, is a 50-page document that provides extensive recommendations on ethical behaviour, both in business and politics.