“This came with a commitment, to Steward and to the wider community (including the European Commission), that the terms of the deal would be renegotiated to make the concession viable.”

Noting that the failings of the Vitals concession have already been flagged by the National Audit Office and the EU, Delicata warned that things were “actually worse than most people realise”.

“This ill-thought-out concession agreement was made even worse by the actions of VGH’s owners,” she said.

“VGH had created a raft of companies, shifting assets between them and burning through funds. On taking over VGH’s operations, Steward also discovered that there were no management accounts at all, and that – shockingly – there had never been so much as an attempt at an audit of the company by the relevant authorities.”

“VGH’s owners had been left, unattended, with a massive amount of taxpayer money, with no one checking up on how they were delivering on their commitments.”

“Steward was confronted with a complex situation and left to deal with this alone. The priority was and remains always the provision of healthcare to our communities, yet  on top of this we had to build from scratch a functioning healthcare company: bringing funds and assets back into the business, shutting down unnecessary satellite firms and cleaning up the ugly mess left by the owners of VGH.”

“When discrepancies were found, Steward was not rewarded but punished. We uncovered a staggering amount of VAT that not only had not been paid by VGH  but which the authorities had failed to detect, a likely mistake if no audit had ever been carried out.”

“It was Steward which, transparently and openly, reported this issue to the tax authorities, only to be told that it was liable to pay for the negligence of VGH’s owners.”

“And what of the renegotiations of the terms promised when Steward took on the fiasco left by VGH’s principals?”

“Three times during the last three years, Steward has finalised negotiations with the government to agree to terms that would make the concession viable; three times the government has pulled out of signing at the very last minute. This is critical for us and our promises to taxpayers.”

“Only new terms will allow banks to lend to us to finance the construction of hospitals and other commitments, something they won’t do under the deal’s original terms.”

However, she said she still feels a sense of optimism that Steward can turn things around and deliver “top-rate hospitals to Malta and its people, on time and on budget”.

“Emotions may continue to run high both inside the hospitals and outside but Steward continues to maintain its focus on our number one priority: our patients,” she said.

Cover photo: Left: Steward Malta president Nadine Delicata, Right: Former Vitals Global Healthcare CEO Ram Tumuluri

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