Steward Health Care Malta has submitted a Termination Notice to Government of
Malta under the Services Concession Agreement due non-rectifiable defaults on the
part of the Government of Malta.
The company believes that the operating environment and investment climate in
Malta is not conducive for foreign companies to have a constructive partnership with
the Government.
Steward Health Care Malta (SHCM) has given notice to the Government to
terminate the Services Concession Agreement and related contractual framework following
breaches of commercial agreements. The concession includes the management and
operation of St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo General hospitals and the Barts Medical
School.
The company’s priority remains the wellbeing and treatment of its patients and the welfare
of its staff. SHCM will ensure that there is an orderly transition of the management of its
operations and will work with the relevant authorities in good faith to ensure this is finalised in a reasonable timeframe.
SHCM and its parent company, Steward Health Care International (SHCI), have operated at
all times in accordance with the highest professional standards and values, including a
desire for good governance and transparency.
The company is disappointed at the Government of Malta’s failure throughout this
engagement to keep faith with the spirit of the public-private partnership agreement.
Specifically, the Government failed to be accountable for their own liabilities, which had
escaped scrutiny; failed to adhere to their own promises to renegotiate the ‘unbankable’
and unsustainable terms of the concession, not once but three times – and more recently
being engaged in negotiations up to the time of the verdict; and, therefore, failed to enable
Steward to raise finances to deliver fully on the terms of its engagement.
More broadly, SHCI is concerned about the deterioration of the business environment in
Malta. A decline in the rule of law, shown by the recent Civil Court judgement, and a lack of
support for and protection of foreign investors has been mirrored by the recent presence of
Malta on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which identified serious
structural deficiencies in Malta’s governance and regulation that do not accord with SHCI’s
own values. More recently, the Government’s failure to appeal the Civil Court verdict that
labelled its own behaviour corrupt is an admission of guilt in relation to its own governance
failings.
Source: SHCM
