The new youth activist group Awturi ta’ Malta Gdida, has said in a statement that it “demands” a timeous parliamentary public hearing into the Vitals Global Healthcare sale of hospitals as soon as the House reassembles later this month.

It added that, “the Vitals Global Healthcare deal saw a new company with no prior experience in healthcare awarded a lucrative administrative contract – and it has now sold our hospitals for a euro to Stewart Health Care,” which Awturi said, was at “a profit in the hundreds of millions with unknown beneficiaries.”

Awturi argued that “none of this would have been permitted under the newly transcribed EU directive against money laundering and corruption.”

“It does not seem to be a coincidence that the Government postponed this directive until after this deal was struck,” stated Awturi.

The youth activist group continued by saying that, “the deal is potently reminiscent of money-laundering schemes, and the lack of transparency in which it was made does nothing to bolster its legitimacy.”

“The matter is aggravated by the fact that the deal involved money from the public purse – from the taxes of Maltese citizens,” it said.

Awturi concluded that it “insists on a public hearing to scrutinise this shady deal that wreaks of corruption, devoid of any transparency and accountability to Maltese citizens.”

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