Another pre-electoral direct order, this time of €1.8 million to Mekanika for Mater Dei maintenance, while 64 maintenance staff are kept on at St Luke’s with nothing to do

Matthew Vella
After last week’s cover story that security firm Group 4 Securitas (G4S) had been given a direct order of just under €2 million a year at Mater Dei, MaltaToday can reveal that yet another private company – Mekanika Ltd – has been given red carpet treatment by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.
Mekanika was allowed to have a maintenance contract it had with private firm Skanska extended after Mater Dei Hospital passed on into government’s hands, in exactly the same way that G4S was favoured with its million-euro direct order.
Mekanika was engaged by Skanska for the installation, testing and commissioning of mechanical and electrical systems at the hospital. When the hospital finally passed on to the government, the maintenance services contract with Mekanikawas extended “in order to maintain continuity of operation”, the government said. The value of the contract is €1.8 million for a year, running up to 31 December 2008.
And as in the case of the G4S security contract, Mekanika had its services renewed as a continuation of the service, but without a public tender being issued – contrary to public procurement laws that require public competitions for contracts of over €46,000.
And once again, dozens of maintenance workers who worked at St Luke’s Hospital are still being paid by government without having been transferred to Mater Dei, while a private firm carries out their job.
A total of 64 maintenance personnel at St Luke’s are being paid just under €1 million a year in salaries.
However they have been retained at the closed hospital, where all wards are clearly shut down and non-operational, except for the Karen Grech rehabilitation ward.
The government claims these workers were not transferred to Mater Dei Hospital because they are assigned to the Karen Grech rehabilitation facility – a section inside St Luke’s which is being run by the Zammit Clapp hospital operation.
The government said these facilities “require ongoing maintenance and support activities.”
That means that the 64 maintenance workers previously entrusted with the operation of an entire state hospital, are now focused onto just one ward.

Ghost hospital
But there was little going on at St Luke’s Hospital when MaltaToday toured the former state hospital this week, today a silent monument to the national health service. The entire building is practically under lock and key, except for the Karen Grech ward.
Despite the lack of activity at St Luke’s, the government still employs all former maintenance workers while it outsources Mater Dei Hospitals' maintenance requirements to Mekanika Ltd.
Added to that are the salaries of €790,000 that government is paying to 46 government employees which were previously security officers at St Luke’s.
But the Karen Grech ward is actually manned by Zammit Clapp employees, security officers included. In fact, the only visible St Luke’s security officers this week were manning the hospital gates.
Healthcare employees at the ward told MaltaToday that security officers could be seen “walking around the hospital” on their duties, but confirmed that the entire hospital had been closed off.
In the meantime, the government has been paying Group 4 Securitas the sum of €154,407 a month between January and July 2008, for the provision of 38 security men in the morning and 20 for the night-shift. The contract was cut down to seven months, in order to go by the book and issue a proper public tender.
Last week the government said the Foundation for Medical Services had asked for authorisation by the director of contracts to extend the G4S contract “in the best interest of the patients and staff to minimise disruption and risk by providing continuity” – evidently, the same thinking has been applied to the maintenance contract.
But last week, government ignored MaltaToday’s question as to how many other direct contracts were awarded to private firms which had been previously employed by Skanska, the Swedish contractors that built Mater Dei, “in the best interest of the patients”.
It was further revealed that the government was paying Group 4 Securitas €489,000 a year to operate the Mater Dei car park.
The government in fact waived a concessionary fee of €326,000 that G4S was supposed to pay every year for operating the car park after Lawrence Gonzi took a decision to halve the hospital parking fees.
In a bid to make up for the estimated decreased in revenue for G4S, the government agreed to pay the company almost half a million euros every year for the next five years – €2.44 million in total – while G4S keeps all the revenue from the car park.
In addition to the two security contracts, G4S has also won a contract to provide 88 private clerks and receptionists for Mater Dei at €394,000 a year.