Updated | Claims of waiver undermining government’s position on Mater Dei

The Nationalist Party has accused the Labour government of undermining its own position by claiming that a waiver on the contract with Swedish construction firm Skanska, on Mater Dei Hospital, prevents them from seeking responsibility on weak concrete structures at the A&E department.

Shadow health minister Claudette Buttigieg and PN executive president Ann Fenech said that the government had weakened its position in claiming it would not seek redress from all those responsible for the weak concrete at MDH.

“The government must change its strategy and instead of playing the victim, seek action on the allegations of inferior concrete inside the MDH blocks,” Buttigieg said.

Fenech, a lawyer, said that the waiver government was claiming to prevent it from seeking redress did not exclude it from taking those responsible to court.

“The law does not prevent anyone who carried these works from being exonerated by a waiver,” Fenech said.

Buttigieg asked: “Whose interests are Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and health and energy minister Konrad Mizzi defending? The government must send for whoever provided, laid, and tested that concrete.”

She also challenged the governmnet to publish the tenders for the construction of Mater Dei Hospital, with specifications of the concrete ncluded, the results of the tests carried out on the buildings, and the full report and terms of reference for Arup, the firm that carried out the tests on the concrete earlier this year.

The PN also accused the government of failing to avert a potential conflict of interest by having retired judge Philip Sciberras take charge on an inquiry into responsiblity for the concrete structures at Mater Dei Hospital.

Sciberras is father to the lawyer Alex Sciberras, who is engaged with the health and energy ministry but also appears listed as a ‘secretary’ on the Foundation for Medical Services board. A government source told MaltaToday that Sciberras is not the FMS secretary.

The PN insists Sciberras’s appointment on the inquiry is a conflict of interest, since his son could be participating in the inquiry proceedings himself.

In a reaction, the government accused the Opposition of being caught up in a panic by attempting to shed doubt about the “scandalous waiver” signed by the Nationalist government at the time.

In a statement, the energy and health minister Konrad Mizzi said that Opposition leader Simon Busuttil had first ridiculed the serious allegations, by saying that the building had not collapsed in 20 years.

“To the contrary of the impression being given by the Opposition, the waiver will not stop the government from doing its best to safeguard its commercial, civil and criminal justice rights at law.”

Mizzi said the real question was why that waiver had been introduced when the project closure agreement had already addressed outstanding matters on the Mater Dei hospital between the preceding government and Skanska.

“We ask the Opposition why the preceding administration gave this waiver, and whether the administration had asked the Attorney General for its advice,” Mizzi said.