The number of staff members at the government’s Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools has more than doubled since Evarist Bartolo took over the Education Ministry in 2013, the Times of Malta is informed.
The additional staff, which includes people close to the Labour administration and recruited directly without a call for applications, has more than tripled the FTS’s operational costs, reaching almost €2 million in the last financial year.
Sources close to the Education Ministry told the Times of Malta that, from a lean organisation, the foundation had found itself overstaffed with people recruited directly through Education Ministry channels.
“Staff, including the minister’s chief canvasser Edward Caruana, were sent to the foundation directly by the ministry and contracts were signed without following any proper rules,” the sources said.
“The problem is that there is no justification whatsoever for this massive increase in staff and costs, as the FTS has produced much less than a school every year as it was the case before the change in administration,” the sources added.
Asked for a breakdown of FTS staff members, when they were recruited and whether a call had been issued, the Education Ministry said the information was still being gathered and will soon be presented to Parliament.
However, this newspaper has obtained the information through informal sources at the Education Ministry. It shows that, until the beginning of 2013, the FTS had a staff of just 20 officials. This has doubled to reach some 40 full-time employees.
Since Mr Bartolo took over political responsibility for the agency – which is entrusted with a multi-million budget to build and refurbish government schools, some 25 people were recruited on a full-time basis, mostly without a call for applications.
Apart from Edward Caruana – the minister’s person of trust who is currently under police investigation for fraud and corruption, the list of new recruits include Frans Ghirxi – a former editor of l-Orizzont newspaper and a close collaborator of Evarist Bartolo and Jonathan Brimmer – a former member of Equalities Minister Helena Dalli’s private secretariat.
Apart from their basic salaries, which are higher than similar grades in the public service, most of the new FTS employees receive allowances including fuel, car and mobile telephony.
The list of new recruits includes a snooker player with no proper designation as to what his real function at the FTS is.
Meanwhile, Mr Bartolo has told Parliament that the FTS has no information on the qualifications related to the indefinite contract given to his canvasser.
In a reply to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP George Pullicino, the minister said that Mr Caruana was identified by the government-appointed FTS board as suitable to be employed as ‘head of summer projects’.
Mr Caruana was recruited through a contract signed by former chairman Samuel Formosa following a direct recommendation by Mr Bartolo.
When asked to confirm, Mr Formosa said he could not remember.
In a damning resignation letter a few weeks ago, former FTS CEO Philip Rizzo accused Mr Bartolo of trying for months to dissuade him from reporting abuses of fraud and corruption involving his canvasser.
On his part, Mr Bartolo has insisted he acted immediately when he got to know about the allegations. Later, he admitted that he knew of the allegations some few months earlier but waited for “a smoking gun”.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com