It is usually inadvisable for someone involved in the commissioning of a crime to return to its scene unless, of course, that crime was committed in broad daylight with the full consent of the powers that be and with complete impunity.
Of course, we use the term crime 'quite' loosely here because it remains to be discerned whether the offences to which we refer were illegal or not. As such, let us say 'alleged' crimes for the time being.
But that is exactly what Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has done, as a side trip during his stay in the United States to address the United Nations General Assembly, which was publicised by the Department of Information yesterday.
The scene: Boston, Massachusetts. The crimes: the alleged illegal state aid granted to Crane Currency and the sale of three state hospitals by the government to Vitals and then on to Steward Healthcare.
Both sweetheart deals are under the microscope, one of the European Commission and the other of the courts of Malta themselves because of the legal action instituted by the Leader of the Opposition.
The European Commission is investigating the Crane Currency deal over the suspected granting of illegal state aid. This comes after the government rolled out the red carpet, and the accompanying incentives, to bring the company to Malta. There are several insinuations about who may stand to profit from this deal, and those persons may be no more than a stone's throw away from the Prime Minister's office.
But right after securing the Malta deal, the company was sold off to another party for around US$800 million. That deal led none other than former Prime Minister and current MEP Alfred Sant to arch his eyebrows and question 'What, exactly, is going on?' and he correctly pointed out that the deal Crane had finalised in Malta had driven its real value to a much higher level than that shown in its audited financial accounts.
Similarly, Vitals Global healthcare was a miniscule, unknown company with a zero track record in healthcare, let alone in running large state facilities. The company is owned by persons unknown in the secretive jurisdiction of the British Virgin Islands, and that company exited Malta by selling its concession after just 21 months of operations.
The government appears to not be bothered about what the company made from the deal. Nor does it appear to be concerned about who the beneficiaries of the deal are. Like the infamous Delimara power station-Gasol deal, the beneficiaries of the hospitals deal remain hidden in a shady jurisdiction's secret corporate registry, and they will perhaps never be known.
Thanks to the Opposition, this case will also be investigated by the courts after its leader Adrian Delia took the issue to court with the aim of rescinding the contracts and reclaiming those state assets.
In both cases, as well as in the case of the power station the companies struck sweetheart deals with the government, saw their value driven skywards by the attractive incentives offered by the government, and they sold at a profit which is in most cases earned off the back of the Maltese taxpayer.
This all reads from a textbook on how to raid state assets and get away with it. It seems to us, someone has been hoodwinked here – either the government or us regular taxpaying mortals. These are merely the high-profile, multi-million euro deals but how many other smaller, similar sweetheart deals have there been that no one knows anything about, yet?
These deals, all of these deals, need to be thoroughly investigated but, left to its own devices, there is little reason for the government to lift an investigative finger. Who, after all, would want themselves investigated, unless they had full faith in their innocence and wanted to clear their names?
It is at least reassuring to note that the Opposition leader is intent on seeing justice for what he believes was the theft of state hospitals, and that the European Commission takes infractions of state aid rules, such as that granted to Crane in that strange sweetheart deal, very seriously indeed.
from The Malta Independent https://ift.tt/2Iqtt1X
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