Academic Excellence

Ara dan il-filmat bil-Malti

Imagine following a competition and, midway through the whole thing, you find out that one of the competitors signed an agreement that bears the signature of one of the organisers.

Much later, you discover that this agreement anticipated what would happen after the signatory wins, with a certain amount of detail that, inevitably, makes one think that the whole affair is rigged.

Then, when you ask the signatory organiser why he did it, he says that the agreement was just a preliminary one that didn’t have any obligations tied to it. Don’t worry about it.

I imagine you might be inclined to complain.

In today’s hearing in the case of the Republic of Malta v disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat and his former associates and colleagues, the most important witness was, without any doubt, equally disgraced former economy minister Chris Cardona.

Back when the hospitals concession was being put together, Cardona was responsible for Malta Enterprise, the state entity that serves as a vehicle for economic investment.

In that capacity, he had signed an agreement with the investors who formed part of Bluestone Special Situations, the company that was then used to create Vitals Global Healthcare.

In other words, the people who were then awarded the concession and who we now know as the ones who took our tax money, said they would invest hundreds of millions in three of our hospitals, and then left us with nothing.

In court today, Cardona repeatedly insisted that he only saw this agreement for the first time before he signed it, and that he had signed it right after on the understanding that this was the political direction the government wanted to take at the time and that therefore, this is what must be done.

He said this was one of many similar preliminary arrangements the government made with several investors with the intent of figuring out what those investors can offer. Because you know, that’s how business is done apparently – sign a paper now, figure it out later.

Then, he told us things we’ve heard from him before, like for example when he had testified in front of the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry.

He said that this agreement which bears his signature – formally known as a memorandum of understanding, or MoU in short – was meant to lead to the generation of medical tourism and “academic excellence.”

In fact, we are currently drowning in tourist-doctors as we speak.

He also told us that this MoU had nothing to do with the request for proposals that came out later and that in fact, it was not even executed, even though the auditor-general has gone hoarse telling us about how that same MoU severely affected the public procurement process.

The cherry on top of the cake?

When asked whether he remembers who was present in Castille the day the agreement was signed, Cardona told the magistrate that he does not remember whether there were any Castille representatives.

When the magistrate asked if he at least remembers whether Joseph Muscat was present, he immediately said “if he was present, I think I’d remember.”

He insisted that Muscat never pressured him to sign the agreement with Vitals investors and that they had never discussed it.

You heard right – Malta’s former economy minister swearing on oath that he never discussed an agreement like that with his prime minister.

So, why did we sign this MoU then?

And here, the circle becomes complete – when the magistrate asked that specific question, Cardona simply reiterated: ‘the agreement was non-binding…’

Read today’s Live Blog
Next Live Blog: Thursday, 22 August, 09:30