Konrad Mizzi points finger at Malta Enterprise over Vitals pre-tender agreement, calls on government to publish MOU

Konrad Mizzi has taken umbrage at government for not giving the National Audit Office access to an agreement Malta Enterprise signed with some of the Vitals investors.

The former minister was referring to the damning report released by the National Audit Office on Tuesday on the procurement process that led to the award of a hospitals concession to Vitals Global Healthcare.

The NAO said it was not given a copy of an agreement between government and some of the Vitals investors that preceded the actual request for proposals inviting investors to submit bids for a multi-million euro hospitals concession.

But in a Facebook post this afternoon, Mizzi said he was not the one who signed the memorandum of understanding with some of the VGH investors and never had access to it.

“It appears that the Auditor General was not given access to this MOU by government and its entities. To remove all doubts, the government must immediately publish this MOU,” Mizzi said.

He insisted that Malta Enterprise had presented the health ministry a project based on the MOU signed in 2014 but this was turned down.

“We explained to Malta Enterprise that the proposal it had discussed with the investors did not make sense in light of the public health needs of the country,” Mizzi said.

He added that according to information he received, the original investors had been notified in writing by Malta Enterprise of this rejection.

“I believe that the Auditor General should have full access to this documentation to remove all doubts,” Mizzi said.

He rejected the NAO’s conclusion that he was responsible for a lack of good governance on the hospitals project, adding that the evaluation committee reports and conclusions had been approved by the Cabinet.

“Cabinet was involved in all stages of the process and approved every contract that was signed,” Mizzi added.

Reacting to the NAO findings, Alternattiva Demokratika has called for a criminal investigation into Mizzi and then prime minister Joseph Muscat.