WAS THIS THE GREATEST-EVER RIP-OFF OF PUBLIC FUNDS AND HAPPENED BETWEEN 1998 AND 2011 – Mater Dei Ho
"Notwithstanding the Foundation's (i.e. The Foundation for Medical Services FMS) long-term responsibility for the management of this project (i.e. the building of Mater Dei Hospital), dating back to 1998 and concluding in 2011, it was unable to provide the documentation requested by this Office, including the project’s accounting and fixed asset records. The National Audit Office is of the opinion that the Foundation’s inability to provide this basic information represents an institutional failure and gross negligence in the administration of public funds," the audit office said.”
Who wrote or said this? ONE News, iNews, Karl Stagno Navarra, Ramona Attard, Glenn Bedingfield, ‘Kulhadd’, ‘l-Orizzont’, ‘It-Torca’?
No, none other than Malta’s National Audit Office and reported in “The Times of Malta”. Is it reliable – or is the NAO another Labour Government “stooge” and thus soon to draw desperados like Simon Busuttil and his girlfriend, Jason Azzopardi, Beppe’ Fenech Adami, Karol Aquilina, David Casa, Roberta Metsola, Manuel Delia and Andrew “Banana Joe” Borg Cardona to huddle together and chant “pulcinell” and “barra, barra”?
The National Auditor’s report is affirmatively conclusive in concluding “The Foundation’s inability to provide this basic information represents an institutional failure and gross negligence in the administration of public funds.”
Did the person who we are being urged to regard as the Pillar of Justice standing up for liberty and right i.e. the late Daphne Caruana Galizia, investigate any of this even though it had been suspected for many, many years?
Naturally not because anything conceived and implemented by a Nationalist Party Government is sanctimonious and pure – like the oil commissions ... and thus not worth investigating.
Persons traipsing into the PN’s Dar Centrali at Pieta’ all wear halos and holy cloaks and are thus beyond any form of reproach – that is until Adrian Delia spoilt everything by showing he would not accept being a puppet-on-a-string like his predecessors Eddie Fenech Adami, Lawrence Gonzi and Simon Busuttil – so he had to be dirtied with alleged vilifications for failing to respond to DCG control and even having the nerve to label her a “bicca blogger” and showing his determination to be rid of her.
Naturally, the dustbins of dirt hidden in the Mater Dei Project and the Oil Commissions had to be covered over and the way was to use attack as the best form of defence i.e. to squeal that Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri had opened a Panama account and elaborate on this (although NOTHING has been proven further other than that accounts were opened) and additionally dig out a Maria Efimova (now wanted on criminal charges) to attempt to dirty the Prime Minister and his wife.
To cut a long story short, the NAO concluded the impossibility of carrying out a proper audit because of disgraceful (perhaps intentional?) negligence in account keeping and auditing of the Mater Dei Project.
This was an audit that had been requested by the current Minister for Finance, Professor Edward Scicluna in 2015.
Amongst the conclusions were:
"Moreover, an inadequate and unreliable audit trail detracts from the expected level of accountability, transparency, fairness, and governance warranted in this national project."
“Neither was it in a position to provide assurance as to whether applicable public procurement regulations were adhered to and the required approvals sought for all contracts/agreements.”
“Successive radical changes in policy and in the scope of the project following the 1996 and 1998 changes in administration perpetuated the haphazard management of the project.”
"Between 2000 and 2003, concern regarding material escalation in project cost emerged, with the final cost estimated at Lm121 million from the initial Lm83 million. This led the government to resort to a Lump Sum Agreement, intended to limit the further escalation of costs and associated risks.
"However, this was not the case, as a Settlement Agreement, later confirmed through a Project Closure Agreement entered into in February 2009, comprised an additional disbursement by the government of €5,125,000 (excl. VAT) and, more importantly, an absolute waiver of rights, which provision exposed the government to significant risks arising from latent defects and provided for severely limited means of recourse," the audit office added.
Now, let me draw my conclusions as an ignorant, man-in-the-street layman (to the PN, Civil Society and Occupy Justice all those that do not tow their line is dismissed as being in the ignoramus class). This was one of the most scandalous projects ever undertaken by a Maltese Government administration.
An original estimated cost of Lm83 (as the currency was then) shot up to Lm121 and it is not possible to trace how, or why or where the money actually went.
Over and above everything else, to ensure that no future investigations would result in anything, the company Skansa from Sweden was given a “waiver” by the Gonzi Government, dispensing Skansa from any blame for later-perceived structural defects because these would fall on Malta’s Government and thus prevent dangerous questions being asked.
My final conclusion – THIS WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST-EVER RIP-OFF OF PUBLIC FUNDS. Mater Dei Hospital was built from and on the blood and tears of us poor sods, the Maltese tax-payers.
Scandalous and criminal.
ALBERT JEROME FENECH
