New police evidence on testing of Mater Dei concrete

The police have uncovered new evidence with regards the people who carried out the testing of inferior concrete at Mater Dei Hospital, Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi confirmed.

Responding to a series of parliamentary questions from the Opposition benches, he said that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has held a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven over a possible settlement with the hospital’s Swedish contractors Skanska, and that Skanska have since submitted their claims to a legal team.

He said that the government has formed “the best possible” legal team, led by the Attorney General, to fight Skanska’s claims.

“It is going to be an uphill struggle, but we are going to fight this case all the way,” he pledged, adding that a freshly-called investigation into the inferior concrete is concluding its findings.

Opposition MP Beppe Fenech Adami questioned whether the government’s legal action and the police investigations mean that their harsh criticism of a waiver that the Foundation for Medical Services had conceded to Skanska was nothing but “propaganda”.

The controversial waiver clause effectively exonerates Skanska from any claims for defects at the hospital.

Mizzi retorted that Skanska had cited the waiver in 2011, when the FMS had contacted the Swedish firm over faulty reservoirs found at Mater Dei.

“While the FMS had accepted Skanska’s argument back then, we will not, and we will keep on insisting that the waiver doesn’t cover the faulty concrete as it is a potential case of fraud,” he said.

Describing the waiver as a “scandal”, Mizzi insisted that the waiver in question was not necessary, as a second waiver that had cancelled out claims between the government and Skanska had also been included in the same project closure agreement, signed in 2009.

Opposition MP Mario de Marco argued that legal firm Camilleri Preziosi had advised the FMS back in 2009 that the waiver doesn’t absolve Skanska of responsibility with regards defects in the hospital structure.

Mizzi said that he had spoken up this with representatives from the law firm, insisting that the waiver was “unnecessary”.

“The reality is that the hospital cost us €700 million, three times as much as an acute hospital of that size costs across Europe. Not only did we pay in excess for it, but we paid for faulty material.”