[WATCH] Tear up Vitals hospitals contract, Adrian Delia tells government

Adrian Delia tore into a court document presented by Steward Healthcare on Monday to justify what is supposedly a €60 million investment in the three hospitals they run.

The Nationalist MP and former party leader said rather than acceded to a request for a site visit to see the investment undertaken by the company as part of its congtractual commitment, the company submitted a document with photos depicting 'before and after'.

Delia was addressing a press conference at PN headquarters with party health spokesperson Stephen Spiteri on the morrow of another sitting in the court case he had filed to have the hospitals concession deal rescinded.

Delia insisted the deal, originially reached with Vitals, an obscure company with no medical history, was vitiated and government should pull the plug. Vitals failed to live up to its commitment to invest in the Gozo General Hospital, St Luke's and Karen Grech, and the concession was eventually transferred to American company Steward Healthcare.

The Vitals hospitals deal is based on “collusion” and should be terminated immediately, Delia said on Tuesday.  “Court sittings have clearly shown that there was collusion when the tender was awarded,” he added. 

On Monday, the Vitals legal team presented a document with photos that supposedly show where the €60 million investment went. The document, which was uploaded on the MP’s Facebook page on Monday, made reference to toilets, a chapel door, a security room and other minor investments.

Delia cast doubt on the true value of these works. “I doubt they spent one tenth of the declared €60 million, and the biggest issue remains that not a single receipt was presented in court.”

He said there was no need for an evaluation board, when the Auditor General report on the concession agreement showed the “clear wrong doing” from those involved in the deal.

“We need better management of public funds,” Delia said. 

Asked whether a future PN government would tear-up the agreement, or wait for the verdict on the court case opened by him, Delia said “it should be this government who should stop the deal”.

“If there was collusion in the deal, the legally binding agreements that came afterwards do not stand,” he said. “It should be this PM who stops the deal.”

Delia’s t-shirt saga 

Adrian Delia played down a question on the reprimand he received from Bernard Grech over his canvassers' show of force during the Independence Day celebrations. 

“If someone thinks I will quarrel with my leader over some t-shirts does not know how politics works,” he said. “It’s funny to see ONE News more focused on gimmicks rather than the real issue at hand.”

He insisted the relationship between him and Grech is good, and that they speak regularly.