PN general council president Mark Anthony Sammut has handed in “new evidence” on the Vitals/ Steward hospitals deal to the inquiring magistrate investigating the case.
Addressing a news conference that was also attended by party leader Bernard Grech and other PN MPs, Sammut said that he had received information directly from a person who knew of the deal's goings-on.
“This is the first time in this entire case that a person who has facts and was aware of what was happening came forward to speak up and give his version of events about this deal,” he said on Thursday morning.
Sammut said that the application filed in court includes sworn testimony from the unnamed source, copies of agreements, and correspondence between Vitals and Steward management and PL politicians, government officials and government consultants.
“The evidence indicates fraud, threats, false declarations, and collusion between politicians, high government officials and businessmen,” he said.
“I saw the evidence, I saw these documents and as an MP and as a citizen of this country I feel obliged to pass this information about the concession of these three hospitals to the inquiring magistrate,” Sammut said.
Speaking in front of the law courts, he said his source is willing to testify directly before the inquiring magistrate who is currently conducting her criminal inquiry into the transfer of three hospitals.
Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) took control of St Luke's, Gozo General and Karin Grech hospitals in 2015 for a 30-year period, a contract that was later passed onto Steward Global Healthcare.
The contract was nullified in court some weeks ago in a judgement that described the deal as fraudulent.
New revelations by Times of Malta, The Shift and OCCRP show that the VGH people entrusted with running the hospitals had splurged cash on luxury cars, five-star hotels, private schools and even Netflix subscriptions, according to financial documents.
The transactions fuel suspicions that the people involved in the deal had mismanaged public money.
A corruption probe into former prime minister Joseph Muscat has also been combing through his bank accounts and income declarations for evidence of wrongdoing.
Investigators suspect that one consultancy contract with Swiss company SpringX Media, which netted Muscat €60,000, could have been used as a vehicle to disguise payments from the deal in plain sight.
SpringX Media shares the same address with Accutor Consulting. Research by Times of Malta shows how Accutor Consulting used to be called VGH Europe.
On Thursday, PN leader Bernard Grech said that no matter how powerful, “everyone, who has faltered should face justice”.
He said prime minister Robert Abela is in a “satanic pact” with Joseph Muscat and is doing all he can to protect the ex-prime minister.
Grech said that two weeks have passed since the party submitted a report to the police asking them to investigate a slate of politicians, including Robert Abela about their involvement in the deal.
“The police commissioner still does not want to do anything about this," he said.