Chris Fearne, Edward Scicluna constantly sidelined over hospitals concession

In the 1,200-page inquiry, Fearne and Scicluna - who will be charged for lesser crimes than other key players identified in the inquiry – are revealed as an afterthought for foreign players linked to the concession deal, who would report to Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi.

Nonetheless, the two former ministers stand charged for failing to put their foot down to stop the pilferage of public funds.

Chris Fearne: ‘Chooses to ignore right to challenge’ Vitals deal

Chris Fearne’s involvement (or lack thereof) in several stages of the hospitals concession is evident in several email exchanges regarding the deal.

According to the inquiry, in 2014 when Fearne was promoted to parliamentary secretary for health in Konrad Mizzi’s super ministry, accountant Brian Tonna emailed Fearne to discuss Mater Dei and St Luke’s hospitals.

However, before sending it, Tonna sent a draft to Mizzi and asked, “is he [Fearne] aware of everything?”

The extent of Fearne’s lack of involvement is heavily hinted in Mizzi’s reply, as he told Tonna: “Thx Brian I will update him today so we can proceed so you don’t need to ask - I would simply tell him what we agreed.”

The investigators noted: “The exchanges appear to suggest that the then Health Minister colluded with Brian Tonna, going behind Chris Fearne, in regard to healthcare projects.”

Similarly, a few days before this exchange when Tonna had requested a short meeting with Mizzi and Fearne, he had specifically requested to meet with Mizzi alone right before.

Fearne’s lack of control over the massive project was not lost on him. Fearne had testified that he had realised that while he was negotiating with Steward Health Care further down the line, there were, “negotiations in parallel with minister Mizzi.”

In fact, the inquiry notes that despite Mizzi’s removal from the Health Ministry in 2016 and Fearne’s promotion as minister, Mizzi’s role with regard to the concession remained, “business as usual.”

The only instance where the inquiry blasts Fearne is in his choice to “ignore his right to challenge the [concession] deal.”

Fearne’s role as health minister was also flagged, as it was noted that his ministry was involved in paying the financial obligations under the concession.

Edward Scicluna: A person ‘who could not be influenced’

Former finance minister and current Central Bank Governor, Edward Scicluna is one of the least mentioned key players identified by the inquiry.

Scicluna’s name first crops up under a section in the inquiry titled, ‘People who could not be influenced’. This section refers to individuals who ended up sidelined as they could not be influenced by Keith Schembri.

The inquiry highlighted an almost-comedic episode where in June 2016, six months after the concession agreement was signed, Scicluna emailed Konrad Mizzi to ask him for the financial details that would impact public finances.

This, the inquiry notes, would mean that neither Scicluna nor officials from his ministry were present at Castille, where Mizzi and Schembri were among those given a presentation on the financial aspects of the project.

“It would indicate that Minister Scicluna was not involved in the health concession, as we would have expected and only had a brief knowledge of it via documents presented to Cabinet,” the inquiry notes, adding that Scicluna and Mizzi had “very little” direct email contact between them.

Scicluna’s obliviousness to the concession’s details remained throughout the years. In 2020, when he had received questions from a journalist regarding his Permanent Secretary’s role on the Projects Malta board, Scicluna forwarded the questions to his chief of staff and asked: “Did you see these questions? Did you know AC [Perm Sec Alfred Camilleri] was on Projects Malta[?]”

In his reply, Scicluna’s chief of staff said that Alfred Camilleri  was, “either dumb by accepting to be on a board when he is not informed on what is happening or he was getting paid and thus he closed an eye or else he knew what was happening and he did not say anything to anybody.”

The inquiry noted the fact that Camilleri sat on the Projects Malta board without Scicluna’s knowledge is significant, as it could, “indicate friction” between Scicluna’s ministry and that of Konrad Mizzi.