Malta’s Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fern resigned today amid a corruption scandal surrounding the government’s 2015 concession of the management of three state-run hospitals to a then-unknown company.
He pleads not guilty
Fern told Labor Prime Minister Robert Abella he was resigning in the national interest, denying he had done anything reprehensible. He also asked Abela to abandon plans to nominate him as Malta’s commissioner to the next European Commission.
“The only thing the courts will find is that I am completely innocent,” he said in his resignation letter to the prime minister.
Fern was deputy health minister when the government handed over the management of the hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare. A financial audit conducted a few years later found that he had been sidelined in talks with Vitals prior to the deal. But on Monday the attorney general brought charges of fraud and misuse of public funds against Fern and other high-ranking government officials.
Abela supported his partner, saying shortly after the charges were laid that he was confident of Fern’s integrity. After receiving the resignation letter, he asked his partner to reconsider his decision.
The charges brought on Monday were the result of a four-year investigation by the rule of law group Repubblica.
Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, his chief of staff Keith Schebri and then-Health Minister Konrad Michie face charges including money laundering, bribery, and exercising undue influence in connection with a criminal organization.
Central bank governor Edward Scicluna, who was finance minister in 2015, is accused, like Fern, of fraud and misappropriation of public funds.
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