Watch: Adrian Delia Confident ‘Justice Will Be Done’ As His Crucial Steward Case Nears Final Ruling
With judgment on his multi-billion case against the Vitals-Steward hospital deal expected in the coming days, PN MP Adrian Delia said he is confident that justice will be done and serious action will be taken by the authorities.
“It’s been a hard road. Putting politics aside for a second, it’s a €4 billion value case, which is the largest value dispute our courts have ever had, so even from that perspective it’s already massive,” Delia said in an interview with Lovin Malta.
Delia’s case, which he filed almost five years ago, calls for the scrapping of the concession that placed Vitals Global Healthcare, and later Steward Healthcare, in charge of the St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals.
The main thrust of his argument is that Vitals had breached several terms of the contract and that the government therefore had no right to allow it to transfer the contract to Steward.
“We’ve brought every single shred of evidence and testimony we could have. I think we’ve brought a case and substantiated it through hard facts and I’m very confident that justice will be done,” he said.
Delia added that Judge Francesco Depasquale could also nullify a side agreement, which was signed after Delia filed his case, that obliges the government to pay Steward €100 million in the event that a court or authority scraps the deal.
“With reference to the €100 million side agreement that was signed after I opened the case, the court can go as far as declaring that there wasn’t only an illegality, a breach and breakdown of conditions but also fraudulence,” Delia said.
“If that happens, then there won’t only be the repercussions of the contract being terminated and Steward being ousted, but also judicial steps that need to be considered insofar as who was behind this corrupt practice.”
“Although it’s a civil case, if that circumstance transpires during proceedings, the court could also actually send the documentation to the police for them to take action themselves.”
Former Minister Konrad Mizzi
The side agreement was signed between Steward and former minister Konrad Mizzi in 2019 and, according to Times of Malta, was green-lighted by the Cabinet of then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
Mizzi had spearheaded the original Vitals deal during his tenure as Health Minister, but he was Tourism Minister at the time he signed the side agreement.
Besides potential criminal and civil responsibility, Delia said he expects the government to have a full contingency plan in place to ensure the proper functioning of the hospitals and to safeguard the workers’ jobs in the eventuality that the deal is scrapped.
Moreover, he said any funds that were paid to Steward or Vitals “in return for nothing” must be returned to the public coffers.
Delia, who had opened the civil case back when he was PN leader in February 2018, dismissed any concerns that losing the case could place him at considerable financial risk.
“It’s not an issue of risk but the obligation I had felt at the point in time to do what is right. Its easy to criticise and say its wrong and point fingers but then taking the legal and judicial responsibility of actually challenging what you’re saying is wrong in a court of law takes it totally to another dimension,” he said.
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