Three government officials resigned yesterday after they were blamed for causing the suspension of EU student funds and the Labour Party is insisting that Education Minister Dolores Cristina should also step down.
Reacting to the findings of an inquiry ordered by the Prime Minister into what led to the European Commission's suspension of the funds, the PL's education spokesman, Evarist Bartolo said mismanagement could not be blamed on just three people.
He called Ms Cristina "the worst Education Minister of the past 20 years" and said she was ultimately responsible for what happened because she either committed "a sin of commission or omission".
"It is very hard to believe she did not know about the correspondence... At the very least, I'm sure her son (who worked in the agency handling the student programmes) would have told her, even informally. But if she really did not know, the situation is even more serious," he said. Describing her as "Malta's Giovanna (Debono)", he accused Ms Cristina of surrounding herself by "her own" people and getting rid of competent individuals because they had allegiances to other ministers.
The least the Prime Minister could do was remove her education portfolio, he said, adding that the PL was considering presenting in Parliament a motion of no confidence in Ms Cristina.
A spokesman for Ms Cristina said she would have resigned had the situation been brought about by any omission or commission on her part. However, the report specified that the matters had never reached the political level.
Ms Cristina categorically denied excluding any supporters of (former ministers) Louis Galea or John Dalli. "This might be difficult for Evarist Bartolo to understand, given that his only short ministerial experience was that of a Labour Administration. Mr Bartolo should also ensure that his remarks on Ministers Cristina and Giovanna Debono are not sexist in origin," the spokesman said.
He adding that Ms Cristina would leave any judgment on her work to the electorate.
The board of inquiry concluded that the suspension of EU funds "could have been avoid-ed" and that the roles of three people were no longer tenable. The permanent secretary at the Education Ministry, Christopher Bezzina, policy development director Robert Tabone and national agency coordinator Mauro Pace Parascandalo resigned. They expressed disagreement with the inquiry report and reserved the right to contest its conclusions in future.
They were replaced by Paul Zahra, Chris Magri and Rueben Pullicino.
The suspension of the EU funds affected about 600 students who were preparing to organise projects or follow study programmes abroad.
Mr Bartolo said the inquiry did not reveal any "dramatic" or previously unknown facts that explained the situation and the board had failed to speak to the people who were responsible when problems began to arise as long ago as 2006.
He said the board, made up of serious and trustworthy people, should have been chaired by someone like a retired judge rather than a person directly employed by the government, because that would have given it the freedom and clout to call proper political responsibility.
Mr Bartolo pointed out that the report's tone became sterner every time Malta's EU Permanent Representative Richard Cachia Caruana was mentioned because he was justifiably "furious" about not being informed of what was going on.
When contacted, Mr Cachia Caruana said that whether he was furious or not was "irrelevant", adding he did not agree Ms Cristina should resign because those responsible had failed to raise the issue to the political level.
A spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister shared this view when asked whether Ms Cristina should resign.
The president of the University Students' Council, Carl Grech said it was of "grave concern" that the authorities failed to take action when they had "ample opportunity" to do so. "Such levels of collective mismanagement are simply not acceptable, even more so when one considers that it is students' education at stake."
"This was a clear case of grave mismanagement and, even if inquiry served to shed some more light on the matter, the students are still very much in the dark as to what will be happening from now on."
Student organisation Pulse welcomed the outcome and the recommendations of the board of inquiry but said students were still facing negative repercussions.