Repubblika Press Release
Moments ago Repubblika filed a sworn application with the Duty Magistrate asking for a Magisterial Inquiry into the scandal of the privatisation of Karin Grech, St Luke’s and Gozo General hospitals.
In its detailed application, Repubblika showed how Ministers Edward Scicluna, Chris Cardona and Konrad Mizzi gave an unfair and disproportionate advantage to the shareholders of a private company to run our public hospitals when this firm had no experience in the medical sector and devoured millions of euro in public funds that no one knows what happened to. The behaviour of these three Ministers leads to the reasonable suspicion that in these cases corruption and money laundering have occurred, among other crimes listed in the application.
Repubblika asked for the opening of an inquiry to collect and retain evidence on these serious crimes given the absence of an investigation by the competent authority in Malta with the job of investigate suspicious crimes: the Police.
In a detailed 153-page application, Repubblika listed all publicly known facts on how the government secretly agreed with a company with no experience anywhere in the world in running hospitals passing on to it three public hospitals for 99 years in a contract worth 7 billion euro. This secret agreement was tied up before the commencement of a fake process of public tendering.
When VGH failed to meet its obligations or even to satisfy the requirements of the contract it had with the government, the Maltese governments made disproportionate concessions that were disadvantageous and of an enormous cost to the public coffers, and also unfair with possible competitors that could have or wanted to offer this service.
After spending somewhere between 50 and a 100 million euro, VGH were allowed to transfer the hospitals to others without any public benefit but presumably at a considerable profit to themselves. This was in blatant breach of the public contract the government presented in Parliament.
It is also suspected that Ivan Vassallo who owns the company Technoline benefited from the corrupt privatisation of the hospitals with contracts that are of a disadvantage to public resources between hospitals and his company that provides medical supplies. Repubblika asked for the magisterial inquiry to collect evidence in this regard as well.
All facts that are publicly known became known as a result of the journalistic work of Daphne Caruana Galizia before she was killed and by The Shift News, Lovin Malta and Times of Malta among others.
In spite of this extensive journalistic work, the institutions failed in their duties and took no action in spite of serious suspicion of corruption and money laundering. Instead the involved people — particularly Ministers Edward Scicluna, Chris Cardona and Konrad Mizzi — kept their public office to avoid criminal investigations that the law expects.
Repubblika is therefore using the means permitted by law to take a civic initiative and demand directly from the magistrate the opening of a magisterial inquiry.
This does not relieve the Police of their duties to investigate serious suspicions of crime even if these suspicions concern people of power.
Today’s application was sworn in Court for Repubblika by President Marion Pace Asciak, Secretary General Robert Aquilina and Vicki Anne Cremona.
The application was signed by lawyer Jason Azzopardi.