ITS, Vitals and AUM 'latest in long list of privatisation rip-offs' says Graffiti

Moviment Graffitti has expressed alarm at recent privatisation deals in the education and healthcare sectors, warning that the country’s public assets and public land are being handed over to private companies in deals which "are a rip-off for the public."

“These shady privatisation deals are jeopardising our right for transparency with regards to publicly-owned property, workers’ rights, decent health services and the quality of our environment,” said the group in a statement.

“It is now clear that the Labour administration has followed the Nationalist Party’s footsteps with regards to dodgy agreements with the private sector that sell off some of Malta’s most important assets,” said the eNGO in a statement. “Among the assets given by the PN administration under very suspicious deals, we find the Mid-Med Bank, the Enemalta Petroleum Division, Maltacom and the shipyards, as well as land in Kalkara given for the SmartCity scam, Manoel Island and Tigne Point, Portomaso, and Fort Chambray. In continuity with this pattern, the Labour administration has during the past few years conducted a number of senseless privatisation processes.

“The so-called “American University of Malta” (AUM) has been given prime sites, including natural land in Żonqor, in the name of enhancing the educational sector, even though this is a private University for the exclusive use of the global rich. It is being developed by a company with no experience in education and is not even managing to attract students.

“The ITS site has been transferred to Silvio Debono for a pittance - €15 million. On this site, a monstrous project which will have a deleterious impact on residents living in surrounding areas, is now being proposed. From the sale of apartments alone, Silvio Debono is expected to rake in over €200 million.”

Graffiti said that particularly worrying was the privatisation of the public health sector. “Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH), a shifty company with no experience in healthcare, has been given three hospitals through a contract that is not available for public scrutiny. Government is expected to pay billions of euros to this company, in return for some investment. The question is – why couldn’t Government carry out this investment itself, instead of paying billions to a private company?”

Describing the arrangement as a  “veritable scam,” Graffiti pointed out that the company has not carried out the investments it was obliged to, and that Government will have to pay €80 million to take back two of the hospitals if it does not renew the contract after 30 years. “St. Luke’s hospital is theirs for the full 99 years,” warned the activist group, describing these privatisation deals as “symptomatic of long-standing politics in our country that disregard public interest and the common good in order to please the wealthy few." 

The group said it was unacceptable for private companies to "get rich off public resources," adding that privatisation poses "a huge risk to our social and economic structures since private companies are primarily concerned with increasing profits, not the public wellbeing."

It called for an investigation into the current deals with a possible view to reversing them.