What victory? Malta lost

Robert Abela and Jonathan Attard came out all guns blazing last Monday, claiming victory in the arbitration case instituted by Steward Health Care over the hospitals concession. 

Somebody hearing them would have come to the conclusion that Malta won its case and Steward would have to pay back millions of euros. 

Instead, the ‘victory’ was limited to Malta not having to pay Steward a €158 million penalty that had been secretly agreed to in August 2019 by then minister Konrad Mizzi. That agreement, which had been outed by MaltaToday, was construed behind Cabinet’s back with the full knowledge of Joseph Muscat and Keith Schembri. 

The judgment by the International Chamber of Commerce arbitration tribunal, we were told, took note of all services provided by Steward and the money paid by the Maltese Government, and these cancelled each other out apart from a balance of almost €5 million still owed to the now bankrupt American company. 

Abela and Attard immediately hit out at what they described as the Opposition’s lie that Steward made off with €400 million. The judgement, we were told, showed that Steward did not make off with such a sum and this was only a narrative peddled by the Opposition. 

When the judgment was published five days later, a different story started to emerge. It took us time to trawl through the 200-page judgment but what we found was slightly different to the victory claimed by Abela and Attard. 

Indeed, Abela has, since the hospitals contract was rescinded by the Maltese courts in 2023, always rubbished the Opposition’s €400 million claim. Surprisingly, the judgment delivered by the ICC tribunal shows that his government did indeed believe the claim. 

At the tribunal the government argued it was owed by Steward €488 million for services not rendered, services of a low quality and milestones that were not reached. Unfortunately, the government was unsuccessful in its quest with the tribunal dismissing the issue concerning the missed milestones and citing lack of evidence to substantiate the claim that Steward’s services were below par. Effectively, the government lost its case. 

But instead of admitting failure, Abela and Attard tried to spin a different story. They even had the temerity of blaming Adrian Delia’s court case, which led to the contract being annulled, for government’s inability to sue Steward for failure to deliver on its milestones. 

It is beyond ridiculous that the government should even question Delia’s court success. Had the Maltese courts not seen through the smokescreen and rescinded the contract, Malta would have continued bleeding money on a concession that brought nothing but problems. 

Indeed, the government should count its lucky stars that the Delia case rescinded the concession lock stock and barrel. Had this not been the case, Steward would have had a stronger claim to recoup €158 million on the strength of the Mizzi side agreement. 

The fact is that today there is no state-of-the-art hospital in Gozo as promised 10 years ago. Today, St Luke’s Hospital still welcomes pigeons as it did 10 years ago rather than medical tourists as had been promised. Today, Karen Grech is nowhere near the refurbished hospital it should have been according to the concession agreement. And all the while, Malta not only totted up the millions of euros that went to Steward but also counted the opportunity cost of withholding investment in its healthcare facilities in the hope that the American company would have delivered on its promises. 

Instead of trying to be cavalier about the ICC ruling, Abela and Attard should have eaten humble pie and admitted that they failed in their quest to recoup €488 million. They will not because doing so will require them to throw under the bus the architects of the Steward mess—Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri and their acolytes in government and the private sector, who are all facing criminal proceedings. 

Abela and Attard may claim victory all they want but the truth is that at the end of it all, Malta lost and no amount of spin can change that.