Update 2 | Auditor General to be given full access to hospital privatisation contracts

Health Minister Chris Fearne presents letter addressed to PAC chairman requesting the Auditor General to probe the VGH contracts, followed up by discussion • PN says NAO investigation doesn’t stop PAC from discussing contracts

Health Minister Chris Fearne presenting the letter addressed to the PAC chairman, Tonio Fenech
Health Minister Chris Fearne presenting the letter addressed to the PAC chairman, Tonio Fenech

Health Minister Chris Fearne has written to the chairman of the parliamentary public accounts committee requesting that the hospital contracts signed with Vitals Global Healthcare are scrutinised by the National Audit Office.

The Auditor General will have access to the contracts in full.

The request was made this morning, when Fearne – flanked by PAC government members Charles Mangion and Chris Agius – presented the letter to the clerk of the House of Representatives.

The Medical Association of Malta had made a similar request to the PAC, when it asked the committee to look into the contracts, while also requesting them to ask the Auditor General to scrutinise the contracts. But last week, the PAC couldn’t agree on a way forward due to a separate request made by the opposition before the parliamentary health committee.

PAC chairman Tonio Fenech now has a new request, filed by the government MPs, to first ask the Auditor General to analyse the 30-year concession. The report would then be presented to the PAC for discussion.

“The government has nothing to hide,” Fearne said, adding that the investments at Karin Grech Hospital, St Luke’s and the Gozo General Hospital will improve healthcare services in Malta.

The letter was also signed by parliamentary secretary Ian Borg and backbencher Joseph Farrugia.

The government is requesting the Auditor General to see whether the concession represents good value for what the government will be paying for the services and whether the capital expenditure to be carried out by the concessionaries will be improving existing services.

The Auditor General is also being asked to analyse the economic benefits for the country in terms of investment in health tourism and the development of the Barts medical school.

Another request would see the NAO verifying whether workers’ rights are being safeguarded and whether the contracts include sufficient procedures allowing the government to control the progress on the project’s development and the level of service obtained.

In a reaction, the Nationalist Party said the government’s letters follows months of resisting requests for contract investigations. It also said that the government was insisting that an investigation is first carried out because the Auditor General “has too much on the plate and an investigation wouldn’t be concluded before the election”.

“The Nationalist Party insists that the contracts are investigated by the Auditor General but this will not serve as an excuse to delay the PAC discussion,” the PN said.

Replying, the Labour Party said the opposition was moving goalposts now that the government had accepted that Auditor General scrutinises the contracts.

“The opposition first wanted the health committee to discuss the contracts; then it jumped on the unions’ bandwagon when these called for an investigation by the Auditor General. Now that the government has asked the NAO to scrutinise the contracts, the opposition has once again changed its position and wants the discussion to start before the Auditor General’s report is presented.”

The PL said the government was publishing details of the strategic partnership – something which never happened previously.

“Try as hard as he can, the Leader of the Opposition will only find success in these contracts,” it said.