The Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools debt of €80 million and millions in unpaid bills had been inherited from the previous administration, the Labour Party said this morning.

The Sunday Times of Malta last Sunday revealed that in 2015, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo personally intervened to order the FTS to pay a contractor – Avantgarde Projects Ltd - more than €400,000 for works which were being contested by the government agency.

The PL said the irony was that the PN media and Dr Busuttil were describing work which had been done at Ħandaq as illegal when this was done when Opposition leader Simon Busuttil was responsible for the Nationalist government.

In spite of what the PN boasted, all the schools it built had been left unpaid and the bills and exorbitant interests charged had to be faced by this administration.

It was shocking how the PN increased debt and did not care about bills.

This, the PL said, was not the only case in the education sector in 2013 that was burdened with financial problems. In March 2013, the university did not even have enough money to pay the wages till the end of the month.

The PL asked Dr Busuttil why the PN government had left the debt without making arrangements for its repayment and why bills running into millions had been left unpaid.