Steward Health Care’s ‘money lender’ at BOV gets new top government post

Miguel Borg, Bank of Valletta’s former Chief Risk Officer who left his post soon after a court case described the government’s hospitals’ deal as fraudulent, was given a new job as CEO of the newly formed Malta Government Venture Capital Ltd.

Borg resigned soon after the court criticised the granting of a €36 million loan to the operators, which is now outstanding.

However, soon after his premature departure from his top position at BOV, accompanied by an unprecedented golden handshake of almost €500,000, Borg was again on the government’s payroll as CEO of a new venture capital government agency.

He was appointed by Economy Minister Silvio Schembri.

The Shift is informed that Borg’s transition to a new government post started immediately after his sudden departure from the bank when he was given a consultancy contract to manage the latest venture capital initiative.

“After a few weeks, Borg was promoted to CEO, with a very good financial package,” the sources said.

Last April, The Shift revealed that the bank paid Borg, 42, from Paola € 468,363 to resign.

While Borg never explained his sudden decision to leave his BOV post, he refused to admit that he was the leading BOV official who pushed for the Steward loan.

Due to Stewards Health Care’s departure from the island and ongoing criminal charges, the loan may now be part of the bank’s non-performing loans (NPLs).

As the bank’s Chief Risk Officer, Borg was responsible for evaluating major loan proposals, such as the one approved for Steward Health Care, and carrying out the necessary due diligence.

Despite the abysmal results of the hospitals’ foreign concessionaire, including failure to deliver on any part of the concession and apparent liquidity and investment problems, Bank of Valletta still decided to lend Steward €36 million. The government guaranteed the sum.

Media reports at the time described Borg as the government’s go-to contact at BOV regarding major credit decisions.

Borg always denied the accusations even though BOV investigated him over his role in the Steward Health Care loan.

Distancing himself from the loan that turned sour, he had insisted that decisions on such facilities were not his alone but were mainly taken by the Bank’s credit committee, of which he was not a voting member.

According to Borg, BOV’s internal investigation of his role in this loan found no evidence of wrongdoing.

In addition to his new CEO post, Borg was also appointed to the Board of Malita Investments and Malta Strategic Partnership Projects Ltd, previously known as Projects Malta.