Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today said that he could not remember when former Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools (FTS) CEO Philip Rizzo personally informed him of corruption allegations under the ministry of Evarist Bartolo.
“I don’t remember the date exactly, what I know is that I was copied in an e-mail by Mr Rizzo, passed it on to Minister Bartolo and he tabled the correspondence in parliament,” he told The Malta Independent.
Education and Employment Minister Bartolo has come under fire for allegedly failing to take action for months after he was informed that FTS procurement officer and person-of-trust appointee Edward Caruana had acted incorrectly while performing his duties.
The comments came following a Cabinet meeting that took place at the Mosta civic centre, with a number of local councillors and mayors in attendance.
Minister Bartolo completely denied allegations appearing in Malta Today that, in a separate case of corruption allegations also involving Mr Caruana, a concessionaire for a school refurbishment tender had approached the minister in February 2015 to flag wrongdoing in the tendering process.
He said that the concessionaire had never approached him and that they never met.
Jumping to Minister Bartolo’s defence, Dr Muscat said:
“If one can criticise the minister for anything it won’t be for the correct way in which he leads his ministry. I am confident in the appropriate way the minister carried out his duties. The minister said he was not giving protection to anyone and gave his blessing for action to be taken.”
“I do not believe his judgment was not concluded.
Asked about whether he would be commissioning a report by the National Audit Office to investigate Mr Bartolo and Mr Caruana, he said that there are already investigations being carried out Internal Audit and Investigations Department as well as the Commission Against Corruption.
He explained that the first department will be investigating political corruption while the latter will be investigating all other angles, ensuring that all activities were in line with the law.
Minister Bartolo, defending accusations that he failed to take action when he was notified of wrongdoing he said that he took action based on the gravity of the allegations brought to him.
He said that when the gravity of such allegations worsened, so did the measures taken against Mr Caruana by informing the police.
It has been alleged that Mr Bartolo was made aware of wrongdoing in April 2016 but did not take action till August. In his explanation, he said that he informed Mr Rizzo to wait until there was a “smoking gun” before reporting Mr Caruana to the police. Allegations of wrong doing relate to the issuing of direct orders.