Francine Farrugia allegedly sought approval for last-minute payroll adjustments even after the audit file had already been submitted and reviewed, MCAST HR Director Valerie Attard told a court on Tuesday.
Francine Farrugia is currently facing multiple charges including money laundering, fraud, and misappropriation of over €2.3 million in public funds. The former Siġġiewi local councillor served as a manager within the salaries department at the MCAST.
In the previous sitting, Farrugia was granted bail against a €50,000 deposit and a personal guarantee of €25,000. However, MaltaToday was informed that Farrugia was not released from custody due to not being able to pay the €50,000 deposit.
On Tuesday morning, Valerie Attard, the HR Director of MCAST testified in court. Attard takes care of affairs related to HR such as employee onboarding, recruitments and disciplinary procedures.
Attard said that Francine began working at MCAST in December of 2019 as part of the HR team, but was later transferred to the Payroll Department as Senior Manager, taking charge of all payroll related matters.
In court, she briefly outlined the payroll process at MCAST.
Farrugia was due to send the audit file by the last Monday of the month at 9am, which would be sent to the Financial Controller for auditing. Once this step was cleared, she would compile and forward the payroll (bank) file, which was required to be uploaded to the banks by Wednesday.
Attard said that sometimes, changes were sometimes introduced between the audit file and the final bank file. She said that these adjustments would cover matters such as employee terminations, probation adjustments, or last-minute allowance revisions.
Francine sometimes requested permission to make last-minute changes even after the audit file had been sent. The witness referred to an email in which Francine informed the Financial Controller that she was awaiting additional information to be included in the audit file, even though it had already been submitted. Attard explained that these changes were introduced after the audit file had been reviewed and cleared.
Once the audit file was sent, Attard testified that she had no knowledge of any subsequent changes made. She said that certain allowances adjustments were channelled directly to the financial controller.
Attard further clarified that once the bank issued the payments, a reconciliation process was carried out. A report from the Dakar Payroll system was transferred into an Excel sheet to kickstart the reconciliation process. Anita Muscat, who was responsible for this, verified pre-tax and post-tax allowances and cross-checked each payslip item against FS5 records. No irregularities were flagged during these reconciliations.
Francine delayed sending audit and bank files
The witness highlighted that Farrugia "procrastinated" sending the necessary files.
The CFO frequently complained that Francine failed to meet the strict monthly deadlines for sending the audit and bank files. This created significant pressure since the Financial Controller only had one day to review the audit file. While no quality issues with the files were identified, the delays were described as a recurring problem. She stated that she had previously warned Francine about her repeated late submissions.
However, under cross-examination by lawyer Peter Fenech, Attard said that she only emailed Francine once about the issue of delays.
Answering questions put forward by parte civile lawyer Stefano Filletti, the witness confirmed that Farrugia also had access to alter employees' IBAN details.
Parte civile lawyer Stefano Filletti further pressed the witness to clarify matters concerning the deletion of duplicate payslips. Attard confirmed that although Dakar produced records of issued payslips, once a payslip was deleted, it would not appear in the system.
Payroll managers had full access to insert and remove payslips, she stated.
The court further heard that Farrugia also held other responsibilities linked to payroll beyond her standard duties. She also sat on a particular MCAST committee dealing with academic resources allowances, while also carrying out part-time lecturing work outside regular office hours.
The defence team requested that Farrugia's bail conditions are revised, requesting that her high bail deposit is reduced.
At the end of the sitting, the prima facie decree was issued by the court, stating that there was enough evidence for Francine Farrugia to stand trial.
The sitting was adjourned to 6 October at 10:45am.
Farrugia was represented by defence lawyers Peter Fenech and Amy Zahra.
Prosecution was led by AG lawyers Alessia Schembri and Michael Muscat, with police inspector Wayne Rodney Borg. Defence lawyers Stefano Filletti and Thea Licari appeared for MCAST.
Filletti is also appearing for the Ministry of Education, the parte civile. The case was heard before Magistrate Rachel Montebello.