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Matthew Vella
In a continuation of the evidence presented by former Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools chief executive Alfred Ferrante in the magisterial inquest that investigated a spate of financial irregularities at FTS, a pattern of well-established relations and friendships is evoked in the suspicions Ferrante had throughout his career at the helm of the foundation.
Detailing the manner in which he would receive orders, facing pressure to pay bills for work he would not have approved, or for which Education Minister Louis Galea would directly go onsite to give orders to contractors with whom he had a certain familiarity, Ferrante listed a series of architects and company directors who were employed as project managers to oversee the construction of schools, all throughout suspecting that he was seeing “a sort of clique, friends, of Conrad Thake,” the FTS chairman.
Foremost in the list of ‘preferred’ architects is the name of Emanuel Farrugia, recently hitting the headlines on account of his fees paid by the FTS. Farrugia was engaged as a consultant in September 2003, just weeks before the dismissal of Alfred Ferrante. At present, Farrugia is engaged on a three-year contract with an annual salary of Lm30,000 and an additional Lm6,000 in benefits.
Ferrante told Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera that certain people were, “in inverted commas, chosen… a certain Emanuel Farrugia, who as far as I know was involved in the new hospital some time ago, is related to the Minister, if I’m well informed.”
Engineer Emanuel Farrguia is, in fact, the second cousin of Louis Galea’s wife. A resident in France, Farrugia was a project director at the San Raffaele (now Mater Dei) hospital project. Farrugia was also secretary and a member on the Tender Pre-Qualification Assessment Committee responsible for the award of one of the San Raffaele contracts. Along with the Elbros partners Salvu, Carmel, Lawrence and John Ellul, Farrugia formed PPB Malta Ltd. Farrugia was accused of a conflict of interest with regards to his position as project manager and his private interests.
“I was never told by him what his position was in any of the sectors, but I know that he went to Karwija and caused some commotion (ghamel l-istorbju).”
According to Ferrante, the report held by the Auditor General into the foundation’s indiscriminate issuing of direct orders to private companies, was awaiting completion and the verdict was expected to be negative: “A form of solution had to be found how restructuring could happen and at the same time conveniently blame somebody. When you have the Auditor’s report with the chairman telling me: ‘Listen, it’s going to be negative… something happened at the Foundation, someone must be blamed’, I think I got the blame, serving as a safety valve for what was to be revealed in the report, and for everyone to say ‘the foundation had taken action’.”
Ferrante also claimed in his evidence that Conrad Thake suggested certain project managers to be employed at the FTS, such as architect Joe Bondin, who was assigned at the Karwija school on a payment of Lm1,800 a month. “This used to be outside the parameters of the financial regulations and I had caught the attention of Conrad Thake to see if we were in line with the regulations, but he would not answer me.
“Being an architect, I often would refer to Thake when I needed such advice, and he always would indicate, and this in inverted commas, friends like Tony Camilleri, who was project manager at the Sandhurst site, who himself had a contract of a regular number of hours a month with FTS. There was also the engagement of architect Paul Micallef, who as far as I know, is also a cousin of the minister, who was employed after a call for vacancies.”
According to Ferrante, Louis Galea had directed him to have as project managers Charles Farrugia, Tino Azzopardi, and Paul Aquilina, “even though there was a call for applications, although they weren’t the cheapest offers.”
The blessing of Thake
Chairman Conrad Thake, according to Ferrante’s evidence, would indicate “forcefully” to employ architect Andrew Ellul, who was also engaged in part-time employment at the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. “I sent for him and without beating about the bush I told him, ‘Perit Ellul, you have been chosen’. I also told him this in front of the financial controller, ‘you’ve been chosen. However, patti chiari, amicizia lunga (clear pact, long friendship), I know you have work at MEPA. I know you are being paid separately at MEPA, and that this work is happening during office hours. So you’re not doing this with my blessing. This is with the blessing of Thake’.”
Mentioned once again in his evidence is the name of Anton Cutajar, director-shareholder in four companies which benefited from FTS direct orders, namely AC Properties, Rea Ceramics, Princling Holdings, and Ethel Limited. Cutajar hails from Birzebbuga, one of the villages that form part of Louis Galea’s electoral constituencies.
According to Ferrante, Cutajar is related to the minister personally. MaltaToday can confirm that Cutajar’s companies were the recipients of a combined total of Lm9,585 worth of direct orders issued in January and June 2003, and of Lm18,500 in direct orders for 2002.
“He would basically tell me ‘the work has been done’. I usually said that I had no financial sanctioning for the work, and he would say, ‘look, the job’s done’, and that I had to pay him. I would use as an excuse the fact that I could not sign cheques because I was uncomfortable issuing cheques of these amounts to contractors who weren’t financially sanctioned,” referring to prior approval for payment, “so I would refer him to Conrad Thake because he signed the cheques.”
According to Ferrante, Cutajar’s companies had taken payments without his authorisation for the work conducted at the Attard school. “In this case the minister would go on site and give orders to project managers, not to the CEO but to the contractor. I used to be skipped and tell contractors ‘I don’t know how I can pay you’, but somebody else would.”
Ferrante’s dismissal
Following the elections in April 2003, Ferrante started sensing that he was being shunned by the FTS board, rarely being asked to be present during board meetings, with some meetings being chaired by the minister.
By September 2003, with MaltaToday already reporting on a series of direct orders issued irregularly and indiscriminately, amounting to over Lm400,000 in sixteen months between 2002 and 2003, board director Peter Fenech, personally investigated certain direct orders, although in his evidence to Magistrate Herrera, said that he had been reassured by Ferrante that all direct orders had been approved.
With the Auditor’s report approaching finalisation, and a verdict believed to expose much of the irregularities at FTS, the board met with Minister Louis Galea, who told the members they would “have to take responsibility”, words echoed by then Finance Minister John Dalli to Peter Fenech, in a subsequent meeting on the problems at FTS.
By October 9, according to Peter Fenech, both him and board member Etienne Borg Cardona, along with Minister Louis Galea, decided that “if someone had not done his duty, we would have to get down to the bottom of it”, however Fenech categorically stated that not all irregularities could be ascribed to Ferrante:
“It resulted to me that the CEO had not implemented the policies we had put in place. As CEO I have to say I found no signs of corruption, bribery or misappropriation [but] he had not kept up the safeguards on the work being carried out,” Fenech said.
On the day of announcing Ferrante’s dismissal during a board meeting, Fenech said the CEO attempted to justify his management by eliciting an example which had happened just an hour prior to that same meeting:
“He said the Malta Union of Teachers president John Bencini had called saying a strike would be called unless works were completed at the Marsa [San Guzepp Haddiem] school.” Ferrante told the board he had issued a direct order, presumably to see the work carried out instantly: “What should I do? Throw 400 students outside for seven days?”
But Fenech pointed out the mistake to him: “I told him that’s not his responsibility. It’s the minister’s. No problem. It becomes a political issue. What do I care? He [the minister] can solve it. I said, ‘In no way do I doubt your integrity. But you cannot decide on certain things. Here we are with the government. The end does not justify the means. Your attitude is that of a hard-working man, but whilst in the private sector they would thank you and give you a bonus, with the government they give you the boot’.”
matthew@newsworksltd.com
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