‘If you want me to resign, I will’, Chris Fearne tells stunned parliamentary group over Vitals inquiry

Chris Fearne told the Labour parliamentary group on Thursday he is ready to resign if his name is mentioned in the hospitals inquiry, and if the parliamentary group wishes that he resign, MaltaToday has learnt.

Sources close to the Labour Party said Fearne spoke of rumours that his name was among those indicated with wrongdoing of sorts by the magistrate.

‘I am hearing that my name is mentioned in the inquiry and if so, I am willing to resign if the parliamentary group wants me to,’ Fearne is reported to have told his colleagues.

The sources said that Fearne’s voice cracked as he spoke to a stunned room. Fearne was given a resounding applause.

The Deputy Prime Minister was health parliamentary secretary under Konrad Mizzi when the hospitals deal was concluded with Vitals Global Healthcare in 2015 and later health minister when the concession was transferred to Steward Health Care in 2018.

The National Audit Office had commented in its third damning report on the hospitals deal last year that Mizzi concluded side agreements with Steward Health Care after 2018 behind Fearne’s back despite the former not being health minister. Mizzi was government's chosen interlocutor with Steward and the NAO accused him of misleading Cabinet on a guarantee given to the American company that it would be paid €100 million if the law courts rescinded the deal.

The Deputy Prime Minister is expected to be Malta’s nominee for European Commissioner after the June elections, a prospect that could be torpedoed if he is charged.

The magistrate concluded her inquiry last week and passed on the report and 78 boxes of evidence to the Attorney General. The magistrate’s conclusions are not public.

The only information that has emerged so far is that Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri are among a long list of individuals and companies suspected of wrongdoing.

The PL sources, who are not privy to the inquiry’s findings, told MaltaToday that the information filtering through is damaging to the government.

“From what we are gathering, the magistrate appears to have cast the widest net possible, making no distinction between individuals suspected of pocketing money through corruption and others whose only misdemeanour would have been to put their signature on documents in the normal course of their duty,” the sources said.

It is unclear how Fearne may have featured in the inquiry, given the NAO’s findings but the sources indicated that the list of names is likely to include several senior government officials and possibly that of another minister.