Reference is made to the article ‘Court lambasts minister, officials on bribery claims’ (October 31).

It is important to note that the claim that Education Minister Evarist Bartolo did not act upon hearing the allegations is completely unfounded.

The minister has always directed such allegations to the competent authorities and the meeting of August 31, 2016 referred to in this article was no exception. In fact, (Joseph) Caruana and (Robert) Ciantar both submitted a separate police report with the allegation and ministry officials were told by (Giovan) Vella that he had already provided a statement to the police on this case.

The fact that the police were taking action on this case at the time is a confirmation of the above.

This was further confirmed by the minister himself in court when he said on record that whenever such statements are made he insists that immediate steps are taken.

It is also important to note that a police report was made by the ministry shortly after this meeting, following a wide-ranging inquiry. All information found in this step was forwarded to the competent authorities.

As evidenced above, the minister has always taken all the necessary steps when faced with allegations and will continue to do so in the future.

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