Editorial • November 23 2003

Beyond the farce

The declaration made by President of the Republic Prof. Guido de Marco on whether he will stand as a candidate in the European parliamentary election was beyond the farcical. For a moment it made us forget tomorrow’s budget speech and the choice of four candidates for the Labour party. Malta attempts to move on.
One thing that does appear to move on is the Mater Dei hospital: a project that fails to attract the attention of the media despite the exceptionally large costs involved in maintenance and support.
MaltaToday has been approached by a number of professionals who have worked on this project. It takes a foreign eye to paint the true picture of the ongoing works at Mater Dei . The general opinion is that the works have dragged on for far too long. The losers at the end of the day are tax payers, the Maltese themselves.
The individuals who talked to this newspaper asked us to take a look at mismanagement that reigns supreme at Mater Dei. One simple observation refers to the towering cranes that more often than not stand motionless over the ugly sprawl of concrete and franka at our grand future hospital. The cranes, needless to say, have a daily maintenance and rental tag; the beneficiaries of such payments are not unhappy men.
There are other snippets, which would make wonderful reporting, namely the clocking by subcontractors of hours of work carried out by phantom workers at Mater Dei when no work was in fact ever carried out.
The other extraordinary mention is the apparent ‘disappearing’ act by so many managerial personnel.
Furthermore we are told from the very reliable professionals who have no axe to grind that the time taken to construct the hospital is inexplicable and points to crass incompetence. It also gives the impression that the ‘Maltese’ have no interest in seeing this project through, they told this newspaper.
The public and the media have every right to know what is going on. This is not a private project, and all taxpayers should have an interest in what is going on.
Skanska, the Swedish company and the dozens of sub contractors are being paid by public money and we have a right to know.
The Health minister will undoubtedly react to this story in his typical calm and charming way. But this is a time for sobriety and focus. The Mater Dei hospital is the country’s largest white elephant.
Perhaps it represents the PN administration’s way of working out things. That is, coming out with the idea and then kicking bags of money into the private sector with little or no passion to keep deadlines, commitments, standards and quality.