How corrupt can governance get?

There seems to be no limit to the level of exploitation of taxpayers by the government in the last seven years. The publication of the first part of the National Audit Office (NAO) report on the award of a hospital management contract to Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) in 2015 has opened another can of worms. It exposes the nadir of corruption in public governance under the premiership of Joseph Muscat.

In a lengthy but clear narrative, the NAO report lists several cases of abuse that corrupted the procurement process. The management of St Luke’s Hospital, Karen Grech Hospital and the Gozo General Hospital was passed on to a company of speculators with no relevant experience in hospital management. The Maltese public is now bound by a contract of 30 years, which can be extended to 99 years, that does not give any significant value for money. The government carries all the risks; the inexperienced operators pocketed the profits. 

One of the reports’ more critical conclusions is that the award of the contract was a sham as the ethical safeguards established in the Request for Proposals were breached by the investors through the agreement reached with government before the request...