Grech: ‘Without Vitals inquiry, police would have done nothing’

Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech claims police commissioner would have done nothing without the Vitals magisterial inquiry

Opposition leader Bernard Grech
Opposition leader Bernard Grech

Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech insists that any police action taken in relation to the sale of three public hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare is the result of Repubblika’s request for a magisterial inquiry.

Speaking on NET Live, which airs on the PN’s media channel NET Television, Grech claimed that the police has been dragging its feet on the hospitals deal for years, even under past Nationalist Party leaders.

“There were continuous calls, even under Simon Busuttil and Adrian Delia, that action be taken by the police, but it kept dragging its feet and did nothing,” he said.

Grech said the institutions were not working back then. “We know why they weren’t working,” he remarked. “The usual people, even when Robert Abela became prime minister, were controlling the police commissioner, and others, to stop action from being taken.”

“When we went to the police commissioner and told him to take action, he told us he’d do no separate investigation and wants the inquiry to conclude. Why? Because the commissioner wanted to do nothing. If this inquiry hadn’t happened, he would have done nothing.”

Grech has long maintained that the police commissioner has been refusing to carry out an independent criminal investigation into the hospitals privatization deal between the Muscat administration and Vitals Global Healthcare, later Steward.