Schools foundation denies irregularity claims

All the allegations made about the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools have been denied by the foundation's board of directors, FTS chief executive officer Alfred Ferrante said.

Mr Ferrante said he had been the first person to suggest that an inquiry should be set up to look into the running of the foundation as soon as the first article about the foundation appeared in the media.

It was important to clear any doubt anyone might have, Mr Ferrante said, while stressing the point that not being a politician, he would rather stick to the facts than go into certain details of a commercial nature.

A board of inquiry was set up by Education Minister Dr Louis Galea on September 12 to draw up a report about the workings of the foundation after the Labour spokesman on education, Evarist Bartolo, criticised the way the FTS was going about its business. Two members of that board of inquiry have since resigned leading to the dissolution of the inquiry board.

The board of inquiry had been set up after Mr Bartolo claimed, among other things, that the foundation was infringing public procurement regulations, not verifying the work done by contractors and that work orders were being split into amounts that were lower than Lm20,000 so that the foundation would commission the work itself instead of going through the department of contracts.

Mr Ferrante said that before a tender was issued, the foundation carried out an estimate of the value of the job to be undertaken in order to be able to evaluate the tenders submitted.

As a case in point, for the work carried out at the Gzira primary school, even though of an urgent nature, the foundation had to provide detailed bills of quantity to the department of contracts which was responsible for issuing the appropriate tender, Mr Ferrante said.

He added that monitoring was strictly carried out on each contract of work. The foundation appointed a project manager and a quantity surveyor for each task. Payment was only made after the work was confirmed by the quantity surveyor and certified by the project manager.

Mr Ferrante said jobs costing up to Lm20,000 were approved by a sub-committee of the foundation's board of directors, which verified all the tenders before they were published. Non-departmental tenders, that is, tenders for works estimated at more than Lm20,000 had to be counter-confirmed by the board before being submitted to the director of contracts.

When a tender document was prepared, the works were budgeted for before publication, involving the financial controller in the process.

"If there were tenders where our estimate was, let's say, Lm19,000 and the offers were higher than Lm20,000, the offers would be adjudicated internally but eventually passed on to the department of contracts for evaluation, even though initially, the tender was issued under a departmental notice."

Referring to two identical tenders for the installation of lifts at Brighella Junior Lyceum, Hamrun, Mr Ferrante said: "With hindsight, these tenders should have had a better title, because these lifts were intended for two different blocks at the school although this was not immediately apparent. The two tenders looked identical because we were applying the same standards approved by the National Commission, Persons with Disability.

"Each lift costs much less than Lm10,000 and I can confirm that both lifts could have very easily been issued under one tender. The offers for the lifts closed and the prices tendered for were affixed on our notice board should anyone wish to confirm this. There are technical reasons why we chose to issue two separate tenders".

Referring to what had been termed a fire system tender at the National Curriculum Centre, Mr Ferrante said that there was no such tender. Most probably, the misunderstanding arose because of a tender that had several sections and which the FTS could award in parts.

"One could opt to procure different items comprising one tender from a number of suppliers to benefit from the price differential.

"In no way did we violate or bypass the regulations when we awarded such a tender in parts," he said.

One of Mr Bartolo's arguments was that the foundation was not going for tenders offering the more favourable conditions.

Mr Ferrante insisted however that adjudication and award was a very transparent process involving different persons at various levels, including, at times, the director of contracts, who was completely independent and could over-rule recommendations of the foundation.

"All being equal, we would go for the lowest price. Price is only one of the determining factors and a tender may not always be awarded to the cheapest bidder. If a bidder feels aggrieved, that bidder can always refer to arbitration or to other remedies at law".

Mr Ferrante denied Mr Bartolo's claim that more money was being spent on fees paid to consultants of the foundation than was being spent for the benefit of schoolchildren.

"Far from it. The foundation uses the services of three part-time consultants who are paid an hourly rate. The foundation had also made a public call for expressions of interest in which 55 architects, among other professionals had expressed an interest in working with the foundation.

For a typical assignment, of, say, accessibility in a particular school, the architect who is nominated by the head of school, is assigned no more than 15 hours to complete the job at a pre-determined rate.

"The maximum rate payable was established after consultation with the Chamber of Architects.

"Payment can vary from about Lm60 to Lm210 for each job. It is not uncommon that architects complain that they were not adequately paid for the job assigned".

Mr Ferrante said the foundation has been allocated a budget of Lm60 million spread over eight years. The recurrent funds voted by the government for the running of the foundation stood at Lm75,000 for the first year of operations, although this figure may be reviewed as more staff and responsibilities were taken on board. At present, the foundation is still a lean organisation with only five full-time employees and another seven seconded from other government departments.

In criticising the FTS, Mr Bartolo had claimed that the foundation was not carrying the work speedier and in a more cost effective way than used to be done previously. Mr Ferrante rebutted these claims by giving practical examples.

"One could mention the case of Marsascala primary school, where originally six classrooms were to be built at a cost of Lm430,000 in a project which entailed the excavation of rock of a volume in excess of the whole existing school and the uprooting of several carob trees.

"The FTS questioned the expense involved. Eventually, it built five classrooms at less than Lm80,000 and without any damage to the environment.

"The FTS makes it a point to recycle materials that can be put to good use again. If this is not cost effectiveness, I don't know what is."

He added that the foundation was commited to speed of delivery with, for example, a target of two years being set for the building of a new school as opposed to the seven years which Sta Lucija school took to be built.

It will soon be put to the test, with the commencement of construction work one Karwija school in the coming weeks.

Gzira primary school saw the construction of a new roof and the repainting and cleaning of the school in what was considered a record time while the Marsascala primary school saw the building of an extension four months ahead of schedule.

"At Sir Adrian Dingli Junior Lyceum also known as Sandhurst, the FTS converted two wings of an ex-military hospital into a model school in line with the demanding national curriculum, in nine months flat.

"Not only were all the classrooms enlarged and completely refurbished, but the wings were made fully accessible to people with disability.

"The task involved extensive structural alterations. The work was being carried out in phases because of the sheer size of the school.

"Yet the expense involved in revamping the first two wings will be less than the Lm600,000 originally budgeted.

"If one had to compare the cost and the extent of the work carried out by the FTS at Sandhurst with the cost of other work taken in hand at the same school some years ago, one would see how cost effective the FTS is being.

"The basement assembly hall at the same school had cost over Lm1 million - it was still in shell form".

He said that to cut costs further, work at Sandhurst was carried out by government employees, Kalaxlokk, Koperattiva Aluminium u Servizzi Ohra, Koperattiva Mastrudaxxi and Malta Shipbuilding among others.

"Such work is granted on condition that these entities do not sub-contract, but they may hire equipment from other commercial entities to carry out their tasks, and this is not construed as sub-contracting.

"These workers delivered a seemingly impossible task, in record time, at lower costs. They all worked hard to deliver an excellent job.

Mr Bartolo also criticised the FTS for not keeping an inventory of the items the foundation bought for itself or for use at work sites, but Mr Ferrante was prompt at showing me the detailed pages of an inventory.

"The Lm3.1 million that the government has made available to the FTS for its first year of operation is already committed. The foundation is now availing itself of Lm15.1 million obtained from APS Bank Ltd, which will cover the shortfall of funds during the first three years of operations.

"Meanwhile the government will still pass on to the FTS Lm3.1 million annually, out of which, a percentage will be used for the loan repayments, spread over 15 years.

Mr Ferrante said he wished the foundation was more proactive rather than reactive.

He said that apart from planning the building of new schools, one of the foundation's priorities over the next few months will be to finalise audits of all school and prepare a master plan for each school.

"This document will, eventually, be the blueprint which will evidence the transformation of government schools into those of tomorrow".

The interview was held before the two members of the inquiry board resigned.