Education Minister Evarist Bartolo was aware that his person of trust now under investigation for alleged corruption was delivering cheques to Gozo school contractors by hand, even before he was informed about it, this newspaper can reveal.

Mr Bartolo told newly appointed Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools CEO Philip Rizzo of this dubious practice, which goes against normal procedure, on the very first day of the latter’s job, April 13, 2016.

“Only five hours into his first day as the new FTS CEO, the minister warned Mr Rizzo, surprisingly, that Edward Caruana might say he takes cheques to Gozo to make life easier for Gozitan contractors,” a source said.

READ: Canvasser hand-delivered €9m in cheques

Last December, however, Mr Bartolo issued a statement saying it was Mr Rizzo who had informed him, on April 16, that Mr Caruana “was insisting on giving cheques to contractors in person”.

“To this I replied: ‘Treat him like any normal employee. Fair but firm. No one outside good governance regulations... let us address issues effectively through structures,” Mr Bartolo said.

Yesterday, sources close to the FTS told this newspaper that throughout his first month in office, Mr Rizzo had told the minister of myriad wrongdoings allegedly committed by Mr Caruana, but the reply from the minister was always to challenge Mr Rizzo to prove his allegations.

Then, in June, Mr Rizzo provided “court-worthy evidence” about Mr Caruana allegedly proving fraud and corruption. Yet Mr Bartolo insisted on keeping “such a matter up our sleeve”.

It was only later, when Mr Rizzo continued to press for action to be taken, that Mr Bartolo agreed to call in an external advisor, Paul Bonello, who confirmed Mr Rizzo’s findings. The case was then passed on to the police.

Mr Rizzo resigned in December accusing the minister of spending months trying to dissuade him from reporting Mr Caruana’s wrongdoing to the police.

Mr Bartolo said he had wanted to wait for “a smoking gun”. Yesterday, asked for comment on the latest development, Mr Bartolo’s ministry said the questions should be addressed to FTS personnel who gave the cheques to Mr Caruana, as the minister was not involved in any way.

“When Minister Bartolo was alerted to the fact that some of these cheques were for work that was not carried out, he took steps to ensure that no payment was effected and then ordered an investigation to be carried out and findings were passed on to the police for further investigations.”

The Sunday Times of Malta is also informed that apart from hand-delivering cheques to contractors, Mr Caruana used to actively participate in FTS tender evaluation committee meetings.

At the time, he was developing a private four-story block of flats in Rabat without taking out any sort of bank loan.

Ministry reacts to earlier story

The Ministry of Education has issued a reply to last Sunday’s story titled ‘Please send us back your person of trust’.

The story detailed how one of the contractors who was paid through cheques that Mr Caruana delivered by hand (see story on left) was Joseph Cauchi, who two years earlier had been granted State protection for giving evidence of alleged abuse carried out by the husband of former Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono.

After that, he was awarded several government contracts, including about €500,000 worth of works through the FTS.

In a message sent to the minister’s private e-mail last May, the Gozo whistleblower thanked Mr Bartolo “and his team at FTS, as during the past years I have worked and earned a lot of money thanks to you”.

Mr Cauchi also asked Mr Bartolo to send Mr Caruana back to Gozo – “as he is the person here who gets things going” – soon after the latter was relieved of his duties supervising the works on Gozo schools.

In reply, the ministry has sent this newspaper e-mail correspondence which, it says, clearly shows Mr Bartolo was not familiar with Mr Cauchi.

Quoting from the same e-mail as that seen by The Sunday Times of Malta last week, the ministry said Mr Cauchi listed works which he had won through a competitive tender process and which Mr Bartolo was clearly not aware of.

The minister replied to the e-mail “by emphasising that works were to be done properly and all procurement regulations were to be followed”.

“He forwarded the e-mail to Mr Rizzo, then FTS CEO, to make sure that regulations were being followed, all the while insisting that things should be done in a transparent manner. While there was no evidence of anything being amiss, one must note that this step was still taken.

“This is also another piece of evidence showing the minister backing Mr Rizzo to take up the necessary reforms at FTS and supporting him in the restructuring of human resources.”

The ministry said that the e-mails clearly show a minister “whose absolute priority is providing value for taxpayers’ money, which he directly refers to, and that this is done in full respect of the public procurement regulations.

“This can be hardly disputed, as it is clearly on the record in the correspondence.”

According to the ministry, the story here, “which the paper and this particular journalist does not want to project for obvious reasons”, is one of a minister requesting accountability, transparency and providing good value for taxpayers’ money.