The Suva Private Hospital and MIOT’s relationship is not a public- private partnership and has nothing to do with the government.

When asked in parliament yesterday on the public-private partnership in the Health Sector, Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum said classic examples of this are the Lautoka and Ba Hospital.

80 percent of the two hospitals are owned by the Fiji National Provident Fund and 20 percent is owned by ASPEN, Australia.

Sayed-Khaiyum says MIOT had a commercial arrangement with the Suva Private Hospital, which is owned by the Bank of the South Pacific.

“Please understand that the MIOT presence in Suva Private is a relationship between BSP and MIOT and has got nothing to do with government, they of course have been the beneficiaries of the tax incentives been given because they were able to get the tax  concession.”

Sayed-Khaiyum clarified that the public- private partnership is when government or government agencies are involved in a relationship with the private sector.