Police to take up Vitals deal audit as part of probe

The considerations of the National Audit Office report, which found evidence of collusion between the government and Vitals over the 2015 hospitals deal, are to be included within the scope of an existing police investigation.
The police told Times of Malta on Wednesday that an investigation had been under way since 2019 into various allegations in relation to the hospitals concession and that a magisterial inquiry had also been initiated to safeguard evidence

The police did not reply to the question of whether their investigation would specifically probe former minister Konrad Mizzi and Joseph Muscat, the former prime minister.
In an audit report published on Tuesday, the NAO found that Vitals Global Healthcare should have been barred from the hospitals bid because of “collusive behaviour” between the government and the company, through a secret agreement made before the tender was even issued. 
It found a succession of serious shortcomings in the process to award VGH a 30-year concession to run Gozo General, St Luke’s and Karin Grech hospitals.
The audit was first triggered in 2016, when the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin – Voice of the Workers (UĦM) and the Medical Association of...