“We believe that a contract that is illegal is null and void and therefore for us it is not acceptable for the government to spend money on Steward as part of a contract that is corrupt and illegal,” Grech said. 

He accused the Prime Minister of being unable to take decisions that were in the nation’s interest, noting that any reasonable individual would seek to have a contract annulled were they to find out that there were irregularities with the contract. 

Grech said the PN had filed a judicial protest because it was now clear that the nation’s only remaining hope was the Nationalist Party.

He said the party wanted to send a message to the people that the PN was there to ensure that their money was spent prudently and responsibility. 

He questioned what agreement existed between the Prime Minister and former minister Konrad Mizzi and others involved in the deal that was preventing the government from doing the right thing. 

Abela, he said, was stilled tied to the sins committed by those before him, adding that the whole Labour parliamentary group was complicit in the deal through its refusal to take action on it.

Steward Health Care formally took over the concession for the running of three of Malta’s hospitals in February 2018 after the original concessionaires’, Vitals Global Healthcare, failed to meet its objectives under the agreement.

The comapany recently stated in court that the contract drawn up with Vitals Gobal Healthcare was corrupt and fraudulent. 

Delia, who in 2018, back when he was PN leader, had filed a court case calling on the contract to be revoked, said the present situation was an unprecedented one. 

Never, he said, had there been a situation where a parliament’s MPs gave their consent for public funds to be spent on a contract they had confirmation was illegal.

He said it was unacceptable for the government to use taxpayer money on a contract that had been described as corrupt by the party in the contract that is to receive the funds. 

“With that declaration [by Steward], every MP who voted in favour of the budget will become complicit in a crime, by agreeing to pay more money for an illegal contract,” Delia said, calling on the police and the FIAU to investigate the contract.

Delia insisted that banks could not accept funds from the government when they knew for certain that they would be used to pay a corrupt contract.

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