The Labour Party’s councillors in Siggiewi have requested an independent audit into the local council’s finances after a Nationalist councillor was charged with misappropriating €2.3 million from her place of work.

Francine Farrugia, who worked as a finance manager at MCAST and who was a Nationalist Party local councillor and one-time general election candidate, was on Thursday charged with misappropriating €2.3 million from the school.

A court heard how Farrugia, who had access to the school’s payroll, entered salaries twice across a two-year period before police eventually caught on. Farrugia has since been suspended from her job and has resigned from all of her positions within the PN, including as a local councillor in Siggiewi. Farrugia has denied the charges that were filed against her.

In a statement, the Labour Party noted that Farrugia had the adjudication of tenders for the local council under her responsibility, and said that such an investigation would establish whether the correct procedures for the council’s finances were followed during the legislature which started in July 2024.

The PN has a majority in the Siggiewi local council after winning it back from the PL in the 2024 council elections.  It elected four councillors, including Farrugia, to the PL’s three.

The PL said that an independent audit would ensure that the Nationalist-led council is “observing good governance and transparency in how it works out the locality’s finances.”