Edward Caruana, being investigated on fraud and corruption claims at the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools, issued direct orders on behalf of the foundation three months before joining the entity, the Times of Malta was told.

This newspaper learned also that Mr Caruana turned up at the FTS just a few days after Labour was returned to power in 2013. Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, who is politically responsible for the FTS, has said it was the foundation that had identified Mr Caruana to be recruited as a manager responsible for summer projects.

Mr Caruana, brother of the Education Ministry’s permanent secretary, also started attending the foundation’s board meetings as the minister’s “observer”, though he was not a member as such. His presence was noted in the board meeting minutes.

Asked to confirm it was Mr Bartolo who had asked Mr Caruana to “take over” at the FTS soon after the elections and if he had instructed him to attend board meetings on his behalf, a spokeswoman for Mr Bartolo said “this was not correct” and referred this newspaper to a parliamentary queston saying that Mr Caruana was his person of trust from September to October 2013, after which he was given a €50,000 contract at the FTS.

However, sources close to the FTS told this newspaper Mr Caruana had “barged” into the foundation’s offices in Pembroke immediately after Labour’s return to power and started telling top officials what to do.

“Mr Caruana took over the boardroom of the foundation in Pembroke and spoke to officials as if he was the minister himself. He spent hours in the boardroom meeting contractors and suppliers doing work for the foundation,” an official said anonymously.

According to information given in Parliament, Mr Caruana was employed at the FTS through a contract signed by then chairman Samuel Formosa in October 2013. Mr Formosa told this newspaper he did not remember whether it was Mr Bartolo who recommended Mr Caruana.

However, according to information given in another parliamentary question, three months before Mr Caruana was employed at the FTS, he authorised a direct order on behalf of the government agency to a contractor for works at St Clare’s College in Pembroke.

The sources said that despite having reported various “abuses” by Mr Caruana directly to the minister on several occasions, “nothing has ever happened to Mr Caruana until his transfer last year following the latest corruption allegations”.

In his resignation letter as the FTS chief executive a few weeks ago, Philip Rizzo pointed directly at Mr Bartolo, accusing him of protecting Mr Caruana, his long-time canvasser, despite continuous “abuses” he was informed of.

At first, Mr Bartolo said he had acted immediately as soon as he got to know about the corruption claims. However, he later admitted he had taken some months to report the matter to the police, as he awaited “a smoking gun.”

The police are investigating claims of bribes, fraud and corruption in connection with FTS tenders, and the probe has also been extended to a development in Rabat belonging to Mr Caruana.

ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com