Muscat meets Swedish PM over Mater Dei concrete

The government is seeking “to avoid years of litigation” and reach a settlement with Swedish contractors Skanska over the state of concrete foundations laid back in the mid-1990s at Mater Dei Hospital, MaltaToday has learnt.

Skanska, described on its website as “a world leading project development and construction group”, were the contractors for the design-and-build project for Mater Dei Hospital where, it has now been established, the concrete used was far below the quality needed for such a building.

Taking talks to a political level with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfvén, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has said he wants Skanska to cover a €30 million bill for the repair works that are needed to bring Mater Dei Hospital up to par.

Meeting on the fringes of the European Union summit in Brussels, the Maltese government delivered the message that “it would not budge” from seeking to protect its interests but that it was ready to negotiate a deal with Skanska without taking the last resort of going to court. 

It is understood that a meeting requested by Health Minister Konrad Mizzi with the Swedish contractors has not yet taken place.

During the Brussels meeting that took place on Friday morning, Löfvén was briefed on the structural investigations that revealed substantial and serious problems with the construction of the hospital and the suspected fraudulent activity surrounding the quality of concrete.

It was immediately made clear that Malta had no issue with Sweden but it had a pending matter with Skanska.

Skanska, a private company, is one of Sweden’s major construction companies.

“The government delivered the message that it wanted to avoid years of litigation and reach an agreement with Skanska to cover the damages,” a government spokesman told MaltaToday.

As Löfvén was given a generic overview of the report drawn up by UK engineering firm Arup, and the report of the independent inquiry held into the matter, the Swedish Prime Minister was told that a €30 million bill was high by Malta’s levels.

The 2009 project closure agreement on the hospital was also brought up, with Malta insisting that this did not clear Skanska of any liabilities arising from suspected fraud – a criminal activity that under Maltese legislation would nullify the agreement.

Nonetheless, the project closure agreement will prove to be a hard nut to crack as correspondence dating from 2011 already showed that Skanska had successfully cited the waiver to avoid paying €200,000 to repair faulty reservoirs at Mater Dei Hospital.

The communication resulted after the Foundation for Medical Services wrote to Skanska Malta Joint Venture (SMJV) to inform them that it would be withholding an outstanding €200,000 to cover the cost of repairs for faulty reservoirs, which became necessary because of the use of low-grade concrete, whose strength was recorded at 20MPa (megapascals) instead of 30MPa.

The Swedish delegation appeared to be particularly interested in the project closure agreement and several questions were posed with the aim of better understanding what it meant.

Malta agreed to pass on the relevant documentation.

“What interests them is their country’s reputation,” the spokesman said when asked how Sweden could help with a private matter.

Other issues pertaining to the summit, including migration, were discussed during the bilateral meeting.