Opposition leader says Abela's ‘deal’ with Joseph Muscat forces him to defend hospitals concession

Robert Abela’s “secretive deal” with his predecessor Joseph Muscat means he has no option but to defend the hospitals concession, Opposition leader Bernard Grech said.

“In January 2020, when everything indicated that Chris Fearne was going to become leader, in the 11th hour, Robert Abela made a deal to protect Muscat in order to become leader,” Grech told the House.

The Nationalist leader was speaking during a rowdy parliamentary sitting on Monday, after the Auditor General’s third report on the Vitals/Steward hospitals concession was tabled in the House.

Grech labelled Abela a “weak, confused and compromised Prime Minister” who has no option but to defend the deal.

He said claims by Abela, and a number of government officials that €400 million given to Vitals and Steward included workers’ salaries were rendered untrue by the report.

“He was lying! He lied so much that he began to believe his own lies,” Grech said.

The PN leader stated the report confirms government was at one with the “fraudsters”.

“With just a quick read, one can realise Joseph Muscat and Robert Abela’s governments are complicit in the biggest fraud in history,” Grech said.

He said despite media and the auditor general’s reports, the government continued to pump millions into the failed deal.

The opposition leader explained how €128 million were paid to the concessioners by the Muscat administration, and €280 million were paid by the Abela administration.

“If those who came before him were wrong, as he admitted, for paying €128 million, how guilty is he by paying €280 million?” Grech told the House.

A surreal situation – Adrian Delia

Addressing parliament before Grech, former leader Adrian Delia, who had fronted the court case to rescind the hospitals contract, labelled Monday’s parliamentary sitting “surreal”.

“One would think such a comprehensive report is analysed and discussed in a mature manner, but government thought otherwise,” Delia said.

He said he could not understand how Abela felt the report portrayed him in a positive light.

“The PM is content with the report stating we have reached an ‘abyss’. This is surreal, this is incredible,” he said, making reference to the report’s chapters. “He is content with hopeless endings.”

Delia slammed government for trying to “misguide” people into thinking the €400 million forked out by government included wages.

“The report showed wages were an added expense. Where are these €400 million?” he said. “That is why government does not want to open a court case to get that sum back, because it does not know where it went.”

He concluded by saying that Abela’s only way out of the damning situation was that of saying the report absolves him.