Education and Employment Minister Evarist Bartolo has publically labelled former Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools (FTS) CEO Philip Rizzo a “primadonna” on social media.
Several attempts were made throughout the day to contact Mr Bartolo and ask him whether he is ready to publish the e-mail that he first received over the corruption allegations, and what his reaction is to Mr Rizzo’s challenges to sue him for defamation or libel. Such attempts proved unsuccessful.
Mr Bartolo has refuted claims that Mr Rizzo resigned over alleged corruption taking hold in the procurement process of school furniture supply contracts, by declaring that a he received a text message on 23 October asking the minister to sack the FTS chairman due to issues of micromanaging.
He also accused him of trying to play-act as the “knight on a white horse fighting wrongdoing when in fact he is a primadonna who changes facts in a way that serves his interests and makes him look good, while at the same time tarnishing the names of those who do not obey him”.
The Facebook post continues to read:
“Let me provide an example: he is acting as though he left the FTS due to allegations of corruption. On Sunday 23 October 2016 at 9am he (Philip Rizzo) sent me a message telling me that I either remove the FTS chairman (Emanuel Camilleri) or he would resign because the chairman has even interfered with the times when the FTS offices are cleaned.
“The woman who cleans, for personal reasons, wanted to work from 6am to 2pm. Mr Rizzo did not want this. The chairman approved the hours she requested. Mr Rizzo rebelled and told me to remove the chairman, who he himself suggested for the post. I told him that I would not remove the chairman just because he is giving you (Philip Rizzo) orders. I am a person who listens but I am not a carpet that people like Mr Rizzo use to wipe their feet.”
Mr Rizzo has made a number of accusations against Mr Bartolo and his permanent secretary Joseph Caruana in his resignation letter submitted some days ago, which the minister argues are baseless and false. Allegations of corruption have also been levelled against the FTS procurement officer Edward Caruana, the brother of Mr Bartolo’s permanent secretary.
Many of Mr Rizzo’s claims of wrongdoing point towards the fact that many direct orders issued by FTS procurement officer Emanuel Camilleri have to be sanctioned by the permanent secretary Joseph Caruana.
Among the more damning accusations is that Mr Bartolo attempted to dissuade Mr Rizzo from formally reporting corruption allegations to the authorities. He also challenged the minister to sue him.
The resignation letter, including the responses by the minister and his permanent secretary, were published by the Education Ministry.
It was previously reported that Mr Rizzo had resigned over alleged corruption on the issuing of direct orders for the renovation of state schools.
Mr Rizzo claims that he flagged irregularities by the minister’s canvasser, FTS procurement officer Edward Caruana, on the last weekend of April 2016, but it took Minister Bartolo until August to take any form of action.
It has been alleged, by a supplier, that any winner who had tendered for supplying school furniture would have to turn to businessman Sandro Ciliberti because only he had a unique certification of design for furniture as specified in the FTS tender.
FTS chairman Emmanual Camilleri and the board of directors strongly object to allegations made by former Mr Rizzo that the board failed to support his suggestion to flag irregularities about FTS procurement officer Edward Caruana.