The Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools (FTS) chairman and board of directors strongly object to allegations made by former FTS CEO Philip Rizzo that the board failed to support his suggestion to flag irregularities about FTS procurement officer Edward Caruana.

The statement, issued in the form of a press release this morning, is as follows:

“The FTS Chairman and Board of Directors refute as grossly incorrect Mr Philip Rizzo’s accusation that the FTS Board of Directors did not support his suggestion to submit the allegations regarding Mr Edward Caruana to an internal investigation and to take the matter to the police.  The FTS Chairman and Board of Directors were unanimously and unequivocally fully supportive of Mr Rizzo taking the matters through all the necessary channels.”

Mr Rizzo has made a number of accusations against education minister Evarist Bartolo and his permanent secretary in his resignation letter submitted some days ago, which the minister argues are baseless and false.

The resignation letter, as well as the responses by the minister and his permanent secretary were published by the Education Ministry. 

It was previously reported that Mr Rizzo resigned after making allegations regarding corruption over issuing direct orders for the renovation of state schools.

Mr Rizzo claims that he flagged irregularities with the procurement process for supplying school furniture 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 Foundation for Tomorrow Schools (FTS) tender.

The permanent secretary of the education ministry is Mr Edward Caruana’s brother, Joseph Caruana.