Experts ‘analysing’ Mater Dei Hospital audit

Updated at 12pm Government-appointed “experts” were analysing a National Audit Office report on the Mater Dei Hospital project to see whether “further action” was warranted, Health Minister Chris Fearne said. The audit was requested by the Finance Minister in June 2015. He asked the Auditor General to investigate the process leading to the design, building, certification, payment, completion and eventual closure of the project. The report was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. Read: Poor record-keeping thwarts investigation into Mater Dei Hospital project Mr Fearne said on Wednesday it was still too early to say what steps the government would be taking on the matter, adding that the Auditor General’s findings were being reviewed in detail by a group of experts he had assembled. Among other things, the Auditor General found it could be next to impossible for the government to recover any damages for the inferior quality of cement used to build the state-of-the-art facility. Read: Government to sue Skanska over Mater Dei concrete The audit was hampered by lack of documentation, missing files and incomplete records, making it difficult for the NAO to carry out its work. “In certain...