Gonzi on Mater Dei: ‘I would have never authorised such a blanket waiver’

Lawrence Gonzi “would have never authorised” the blanket waiver which the Foundation for Medical Services had agreed to in 2009 with Swedish subcontractors Skanska.

Moreover, the former Nationalist prime minister said that the Project Closure Agreement had not been presented to the Cabinet before it was signed.

According to the government, the controversial clause included in the last page of the 2009 Project Closure Agreement will make it hard for the government to seek redress or to hold anyone responsible for negligence. 

Health Minister Konrad Mizzi said that the previous Nationalist administration should come forward “to apologise” and explain why Skanska and Maltese contractors responsible for the construction of Mater Dei Hospital had been exonerated from any claims that might arise.

Contacted by MaltaToday, the former prime minister said: “As far as I can recall, as I am travelling out of Malta at the moment, and after consulting some of my Cabinet colleagues, this so-called ‘waiver clause’ was never put to Cabinet for approval.”

In separate comments, former finance minister Tonio Fenech told MaltaToday that he went through his Cabinet memos dating 2008, 2009 and mid-2010 and no reference to the Project Closure Agreement was found. 

On Monday, Mizzi said that the Project Closure Agreement (PCA) waived claims that had been put forward by the two sides and an agreement on the work that had to be finalised by Skanska: “It should have stopped there but, out of the blue, the blanket waiver was included on the very last page of the agreement.”

The former prime minister however said that the PCA does not exonerate bad workmanship or any fraudulent activity that might have taken place.

“I understand that the wording covers outstanding issues raised and negotiated between both parties, but does not include waiver of bad workmanship and/or fraudulent activity or any other statutory responsibilities according to Maltese law,” Gonzi said.

He added: “In any event I would have never authorised or countenanced such a blanket waiver.”

MaltaToday also asked Gonzi who should shoulder responsibility for the concrete used and the waiver and whether he had ever received any communication of any sort suggesting that concrete of inferior quality had been used. No reply on these two questions was forthcoming. 

The Project Closure Agreement was signed by then FMS chairman Paul Camilleri, Joseph Fenech representing sub-contractor Blokrete and a representative of Skanska.

Camilleri is presently not available for comment due to health issues. 

On their part, Skanska told MaltaToday that they were not in a position to comment as yet.

“This project was executed a long time ago. Many of those who worked with it are no longer with the company. We have not seen the investigation by Arup. We will of course look into this, but we need time before we can have an opinion in detail account for this matter. Before the letter of Minister Mizzi last week, we had not been contacted by anyone,” Skanska’s head of media relations, Edvard Lind, said.

Bastjan Dalli denial

In a statement, the owner of Mixer Ltd, Sebastian Dalli, has denied having supplied most of the concrete for the construction of the Mater Dei hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department.

Dalli, brother to former minister John Dalli, was referring to comments by shadow health minister Claudette Buttigieg on Monday’s Reporter on PBS. 

“I supplied a very small fraction of the concrete for the Mater Dei project and I did this as a supplier to one of the subcontractors with whom I had a long standing relationship well before the Mater Dei project started,” Dalli said, referring to Blokrete.

“I also state that in 1996 I never supplied concrete to the Mater Dei project alone as there were always other suppliers and contractors involved. I did not supply any concrete to Mater Dei from end-1996 onwards. I was never a subcontractor on the project.”

‘Reciprocal waiver of claims’ already included

The full Project Closure Agreement (PCA) was drafted to waive all contestations and claims which were raised by the Foundation for Medical Services and Skanska Malta Joint Venture (SMJV).

The PCA was found in a safe at the Foundation for Medical Services with a number of other sensitive documents, isolated from the rest of the documents pertaining to the Mater Dei Hospital.

Split in 10 clauses, the PCA focused on the reciprocal waiver of claims, variation orders, works to be performed by SMJV, acceptance, guarantees, disputes, confidentiality and the infamous waiver.

What raises questions about the waiver is that the second clause, titled the Reciprocal Waiver of Claims, clearly stipulated that both sides were waiving the contestations and claims that were being raised.

The PCA was signed after the parties “discussed and negotiated an agreement whereby SMJV shall take certain actions to close off the Works” while the FMS “agreed to assume certain obligations in order to allow SMJV to close-off the said Works”.

The two sides also agreed to a variation order of €5,125,000 and a lump sum of €346,512,802, with FMS agreeing to pay the variation order amount by no later than 30 days from the signing of the agreement.

The PCA went on to list the works which SMJV had to carry out by no later than 30 June, 2009. With the exception of the pending works listed in the PCA, it was agreed that the rest of the works were deemed to be completed and accepted.

Former social policy minister John Dalli, reacting to a copy of the PCA which MaltaToday managed to obtain, said this was the first time he was seeing the contract. “Now that I have seen the document, and I’m not a lawyer, I don’t think that there is a blanket waiver because both parties retained in the contract the rights they may have under Maltese law,” he said.