Government fails to back up claims on Mater Dei concrete ten years later

The government is refusing to provide parliament with information about the cost of repairs it carried out at Mater Sei over the last ten years, following claims made by disgraced former health minister Konrad Mizzi about ‘defective concrete’ at the hospital built by a PN administration.

A few months into Labour’s new government, elected in 2013, Mizzi ran a media campaign claiming that the concrete used for the building of the massive Mater Dei Hospital was defective and of inferior quality.

He claimed that parts of the hospital, particularly the Emergency building, were in serious trouble and could potentially collapse without immediate action, which was a cause for alarm.

Boosting the issue further, disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat claimed that the government had to spend some €150 million to remedy the defective structures at the hospital.

Labour had also said that it would sue Skanska, the Swedish builders of the hospital, to claim damages.

Ten years later and with no repairs in sight, PN MP Chris Said asked the government to list the repairs made on the “defective concrete structures” every year since 2014, their cost, and who had done the necessary work.

The Health Minister said the information “will be given sometime later”.

In reality, the government has not conducted any repairs on Mater Dei’s faulty concrete.

The Opposition, as well as architect Joe Cassar, now Prime Minister Robert Abela’s architect for his boutique hotel project in Xewkija, had rubbished Konrad Mizzi’s claims.

An arbitration court case against Skanska initiated by Mizzi, through which well-connected lawyers were paid tens of thousands from taxpayers, also reached a dead end. The government’s claims were rejected, and Malta had to withdraw the case.

Contacted by The Shift, PN MP Chris Said said he would file the same question again when parliament resumes as the government had to come clean.

“People were perplexed at the time of Konrad Mizzi’s claims. If these were untrue and invented, as they seem, then the government should say so and apologise,” Said insisted.

The concrete for Mater Dei was mainly provided by Blokrete Ltd, Tal-Maghtab Construction and Mixer Ltd, a now-defunct company owned by Bastjan Dalli, brother of disgraced former European Commissioner John Dalli.