A Gozitan businessman who has currently completed the construction of a 57-bed nursing home for the elderly in Victoria seems to be ready to secure a lucrative public offer of 63 million euros from the GOZO Ministry.
Simon Grech, the entrepreneur behind Icare Operations LTD, is the only known provider in Gozo that is currently developing a facility that fulfills the specific criteria that are set out for eight years in the recent “Framework Contract”.
The tender was closed in April with Icare Operations LTD, in which he submitted the only practicable bid. Another offer came from Uniplural Childcare LTD – formerly Apex Company LTD – a company without obvious experience in older care.
Industry observers have proposed that the specifications of the tends reflect the design and timeline of Grech's private project. Requirements such as at least 50 beds within a single building, the availability within one year and the financial thresholds seem to be precisely the ongoing development of GRECH.
The shift reported in 2023 that Grech converted a former wedding location next to the Arkadiens shopping center in Victoria into a dormitory for older people. At that time we predicted that a state offer would probably follow to ensure the life capability of the facility. This is exactly what happens two years later.
Grech has benefited from a number of direct orders from the Gozo Ministry in recent years. He also has Casa Amalia, a dementia care facility in Gozo, which receives around € 500,000 in public funds annually. However, an examination of 2022 by the National Audit Office (NAO) showed that Casa Amalia did not use any specialists for dementia care and that the ministry was based on financial data that was delivered by the operator when calculating payments – an order that was classified as very irregular.
Further questions were raised to greches personal connections. His partner, Maria Farrugia, is employed in the private secretariat of the Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri. In contrast to Malta, living care of older people in Gozo is more likely to fall below the area of responsibility of the GOZO Ministry than in the Ministry of Health.
A spokesman for the ministry refused to pronounce concerns about the obvious orientation of the offer with great private development. Instead, she emphasized that the current institutions, including the recently opened Dar San ġużepp, are operational, but should protect the tender for the long -term care capacity of the island of the island.
The ministry also said that the Ministry for the elderly was going on with new premises in the resettlement of residents of Dar Sant Anna-and-there are new premises within the Gozo General Hospital-in. This would make it easier to renovate the hospital complex.