I refer to the article entitled ‘Ex-canvasser still paid half his FTS salary’ (April 16).

The Ministry for Education and Employment believes that the report contains false innuendos as well as having important pieces of information omitted, which give the wrongful impression of the situation.

The ministry would like to clarify that:

In the second paragraph, the article hints there were misleading information or statements from the minister or ministry. This is not the case. All information provided was factual, truthful to the affairs as they stood when they were published and can be corroborated by the information provided in Parliament.

The reporter quotes a parliamentary question by Jason Azzopardi. What he fails to mention, and this was provided in the reply to the questions, was that a parliamentary question by Simon Busuttil was submitted six months ago and the minister provided full disclosure of the situation. The ministry even provided all the links to the parliamentary questions for the journalist to verify such statements.

All the information provided was factual. In so forth, further information was added to the parliamentary questions to provide Parliament with updates. The ministry has taken all the necessary steps in line with regulations.

In the timesofmalta.com article, the subtitle ‘It was claimed that he was moved to another department’ was added to the newspaper article. This is not simply a claim. This is a verifiable fact that can be checked through the aforementioned parliamentary questions.

The ministry feels that the Times of Malta readers are owed these facts to have a more faithful explanation of the truth of this story.

Editorial note: The last two paragraphs of the printed article quotes the minister saying what is repeated above. What the ministry did not clarify here is whether Edward Caruana is still on the books of the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools or completely cut off.