Reference is made to the article  ‘Police widen FTS probe to include the perm sec’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, March 26).

It must be stated that at no point did Joseph Caruana, permanent secretary, Ministry for Education and Employment, confirm that he was under police investigation, as has been falsely claimed in the article by Ivan Camilleri. The only confirmation Mr Caruana gave related to the questions put forward to him, where he confirmed that investigations are under way into all the operational matters relating to the FTS.

One must also note that these investigations are taking place at the request of the Ministry for Education and Employment. Indeed such requests have been made public through DOI statements.

As previously stated publicly, Mr Caruana requested the principal permanent secretary to recuse him from the whole case in order to avoid any potential conflict of interest. This request has been accepted, and a senior official within the ministry has been appointed to do this.

Yet again, Mr Caruana emphasises that he is at the disposal of any relevant authority looking into the case and that he has no problem answering any questions put forward, or to provide all the information required to such competent bodies.

Editor’s note:

To be exact, the article quoted Mr Caruana as confirming that an investigation “on the matter” was under way. This was intended to refer to the police investigation of projects handled by his brother at the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools (FTS) – which is among the operational matters mentioned in the letter above. Citing sources, this newspaper reported that Mr Caruana is now part of that investigation after the emergence of an e-mail exchange with his brother. Despite opportunities to do so, Mr Caruana has still not answered the fundamental question raised by the article: Why did he feel the need to copy his brother in with confidential information?