Chris Fearne says he was not involved in Vitals pre-tender agreement

Chris Fearne insists he had nothing to do with talks that may have taken place with VGH investors before the government formally sought proposals for a hospitals concession deal.

The Deputy Prime Minister was referring to the damning conclusions of a National Audit Office investigation on the Vitals hospitals deal reached in 2015.

Fearne was then parliamentary secretary for health within Konrad Mizzi’s ministry.

The NAO report made it clear that neither the health secretariat, nor the finance ministry, were involved in the deal and were unaware of an agreement between the government and some of the Vitals investors before the request for proposals was published.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday evening, Fearne said he was never involved in any way in negotiations mentioned in the NAO report and which may have taken place before the tendering process was initiated.

“I did not even know about the existence of this memorandum of understanding,” Fearne said.

READ ALSO: Konrad Mizzi points finger at Malta Enterprise over Vitals pre-tender agreement, calls on government to publish MOU