Vitals law firm told to give police client file in magisterial inquiry on hospitals

The DF Advocates law firm has been requested to hand over its client file for the controversial private hospital concessionaires Vitals Global Healthcare, to the police.

The evidence has been requested by the magistrate investigating the VGH concession that granted three state hospitals to the unknown consortium to run as a private hospital concern.

In a statement, DF partner Kevin Deguara said no lawyer within the firm has been involved in the investigation.

“The magisterial inquiry does not relate to, nor does it involve, any lawyer within our law firm personally,” Deguara said.

“Whilst our lawyer-client privilege impedes us from providing further details... it is indeed most disconcerting to find ourselves to be the subject of a blog post full of malicious inferences, reporting factually incorrect information and making prejudicial allegations against our firm,” Deguara said, referring to a blogpost carried in manueldelia.com.

Deguara said DF’s involvement in the Vitals concession had been solely as legal advisors to the companies forming part of the VGH group, “just like our colleagues from other reputable law firms and financial advisors who were somehow or other providing their professional advice on this project, either for VGH or for the government.”

Deguara also said that DF Advocates refuted the allegation that the firm or its lawyers had any links or acted for Joseph Muscat’s former chief of staff Keith Schembri or his business interests.

The former ministers Edward Scicluna, Chris Cardona and Konrad Mizzi are facing a magisterial inquiry over their involvement in the hospital privatisation deal, after a criminal court rejected their appeal.

Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) took control of St Luke’s, Gozo General and Karin Grech hospitals in 2015 for a 30-year period. A heavily-redacted version of the concession deal contract was released in 2016.

Rule of law NGO Repubblika requested the inquiry to establish if Scicluna, Cardona and Mizzi, as well as Technoline managing director Ivan Vassallo, gave the group of investors behind VGH an unfair advantage in the contract’s selection process.

The company, which had no previous experience in the sector, had its shares bought out by US healthcare giant Steward less two years later.