The two topmost officials at the government’s school building agency, which continues to be haunted by corruption allegations, have stepped down, the Times of Malta is informed.
Chairman Emanuel Camilleri and CEO Raphael Axiak left the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools unexpectedly earlier this week after informing Education Minister Evarist Bartolo they would not like to remain in their post, sources said. They were appointed just under a year ago.
Although the Education Ministry has not yet announced the resignation, officials told this newspaper Mr Bartolo appointed former Labour leader Alfred Sant’s brother, Michael, as the new chairman.
When contacted, Mr Camilleri, who also heads the government’s Privatisation Unit, would not say why he stepped down though he insisted he was not sacked.
He said that “after long consideration” he decided not to be “reappointed”.
Mr Axiak, an architect by profession, said he would not like to comment, adding only that “my time there was up”.
FTS officials, who spoke to this newspaper on condition of anonymity, said Mr Axiak “could no longer take the pressure and interference by the Education Ministry and decided to call it a day”.
Could no longer take the pressure and interference
Mr Axiak, prior to being given the CEO job last November, spent all his professional life at the Planning Authority, where he will return.
Describing Mr Axiak as “a very correct and straight person who worked 15 hours a day”, the officials said that, despite his input, he could not take the FTS out of “the big mess” it had been allowed to sink into.
They said the allegations of corruption with regard to former FTS official Edward Caruana, raised doubts of irregularities or lack of good governance about all the agency’s projects.
“The situation is so bad that all projects have now fallen significantly behind schedule,” they added.
FTS hit the headlines last year when Philip Rizzo, a person of trust appointed to head the agency, resigned just months into his appointment and accused Mr Bartolo of trying to dissuade him from reporting Mr Caruana, a former canvasser of the minister, to the police on suspicion of corruption.
In a 200-page dossier given to the police prior to his resignation, Mr Rizzo alleged that Mr Caruana had diverted to his benefit hundreds of thousands of euros worth of work and material.
It later emerged that Mr Caruana was building a big block of flats in Rabat, and that he had not taken out a bank loan.
Mr Bartolo had said he had waited to take action against Mr Caruana as he preferred to “find a smoking gun”.
He later said he had found “prima facie” evidence corroborating Mr Rizzo’s accusations and ordered Mr Caruana to be transferred from the FTS to another government department.
Mr Caruana had been given permission to suspend himself on full pay pending police charges being issued against him. The police have yet to arraign him.
In the meantime, a school building programme promised by the government is almost at a standstill. The government had said it would open a new primary school at St Paul’s Bay and Marsascala in 2015. However, work on the first has not started yet while the project at Marsascala is moving at a snail’s pace.
Questions sent yesterday to the ministry about the FTS resignations have not been answered.