The country's assets and public land are being handed over to private companies through deals that constitute a rip-off for the public, a pressure group warned on Saturday.
Shady privatisation deals are jeopardising the public's right for transparency with regards to publicly-owned property, workers' rights, decent health services and the quality of our environment, Moviment Graffitti said.
It is now clear that the Labour administration has followed the Nationalist Party’s footsteps where it comes to "dodgy" agreements with the private sector that sell off some of Malta’s most important assets. Among the assets given by the PN administration under very suspicious deals were Mid-Med Bank, the Enemalta Petroleum Division, Maltacom and the shipyards, as well as land in Kalkara given for the SmartCity "scam", Manoel Island and Tigne Point, Portomaso, and Fort Chambray.
Meanwhile, the current government gave the "so-called" American University of Malta prime sites, including natural land in Żonqor, in the name of enhancing the educational sector, even though this is a private University for the exclusive use of the global rich.
The ITS site has been transferred to Silvio Debono for a pittance of €15 million, Graffitti said. On this site, a monstrous project which will have a deleterious impact on residents living in surrounding areas, is now being proposed.
Particularly worrying is the privatisation of the public health sector. Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH), a "shifty" company with no experience in healthcare, has been given three hospitals through a contract that is not available for public scrutiny.
"It is now transpiring that this contract is a veritable scam. The company has not even carried out the investments it was obliged to, and the government will have to pay €80 million to take back two of the hospitals if it does not renew the contract after 30 years," the pressure group said.
"These privatisation deals are symptomatic of long-standing politics in our country that disregard public interest and the common good to please the wealthy few. Moreover, widespread privatisation poses a huge risk to our social and economic structures since private companies are primarily concerned with increasing profits, not the public wellbeing. This privatisation-at-all-costs policy must stop. Deals currently in force should be investigated and, possibly, reversed."