Konrad Mizzi Flat Out Ignores Auditor General’s Request For A Meeting To Discuss Hospitals Deal
Former Energy and Health Minister Konrad Mizzi ignored several requests by the National Audit Office for a meeting to discuss the controversial sale of three hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare.
In an extensive report into the concession, the NAO flagged Mizzi’s refusal to even acknowledge the request for a meeting as a “grave concern”.
“Despite several requests for meetings sent by this Office, these remained unaddressed,” it said.
“The gravity of this failure was rendered immediately evident in this report through the pivotal role played by Hon. Mizzi in this concession.”
The NAO noted that Mizzi was responsible for the health sector, was a member of the steering committee tasked with overseeing the concession, and represented the government in all contracts with VGH bar its emphyteutical deed.
“This latter point assumes greater relevance when one considers that Hon. Mizzi was authorised by Cabinet to keep on representing the Government even when he no longer was responsible for the health portfolio,” they noted.
The NAO added that Mizzi’s failure to respond to their requests for a meeting doesn’t only constitute a limitation to the audit itself but a “serious failure” on the politician’s part “in terms of the standard of good governance that ought to have characterised a project as material and as important to the national health services as was this”.
Health Minister Chris Fearne accepted the NAO's request for a meeting
In contrast, Mizzi’s successor as Health Minister Chris Fearne accepted the NAO’s request for a meeting, as did several senior officials within the Health Ministry, namely the permanent secretary, the director general for finance and administration, the financial controller and advisors.
They also met with the permanent secretary of the Tourism Ministry and with the chairperson and a member of the negotiation committee.
In addition, they met with the executive director and president of Steward Health Care Malta, the firm that ended up buying the concession from VGH in 2018, and the executive director of Karin Grech Hospital.
Aron Mifsud Bonnici, Mizzi’s former lawyer who also sat on the government’s negotiation committee, refused the NAO’s request for a meeting, citing professional ethics.
The NAO highlighted that its meeting agenda mainly related to the processes adopted by the committee when representing the government in negotiations with VGH and wasn’t intended to impinge on Mifsud Bonnici’s legal advice to the government.
However, Mifsud Bonnici never responded to this clarification and consequently no meeting was held.
Several attempts by the NAO to contact VGH investor Ram Tumuluri also failed.
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