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The magisterial inquest launched into the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools once again carried with it the all-too-familiar watermark of government infallibility. Despite all investigations by Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera into the workings of the Louis Galea quango, no action was taken by the Attorney General on a series of allegations and evidence which pointed to regular financial irregularities and direct political involvement.
The FTS first came into focus back in 2003 when MaltaToday revealed a series of direct orders issued by the Foundation to the private sector, the regularity of which remain in dispute. A total of over Lm400,000 in direct orders were issued between 2002 and April 2003, a substantial number of which, at least one-third, awarded to private companies hailing from the Minister of Education’s electoral constituencies.
Less than two weeks after breaking the news, CEO Alfred Ferrante was given the sack, and a magisterial inquest was launched soon after. Ferrante claimed he was the scapegoat in the whole affair, but at the end of the day, everybody within the FTS saga appears to have been let off scot-free, after the Attorney General found no reason to commence prosecution.
The FTS saga remains another case where government functionaries and ministers are not held accountable for the workings of quangos which they create and run, and which annually drain the public coffers of millions.
The evidence given by the former CEO unveiled new accounts into the events surrounding his dismissal. According to Ferrante’s evidence, Minister Louis Galea would go directly on site to speak to project managers entrusted with carrying out construction and maintenance works at schools, “to tell them ‘you do that for me… you do that’, directly to the contractors, since there was a certain confidence with these contractors, so he would give directions himself.
“I used to end up with a fait accompli irrespectively of whether I had approved or not the work itself. When they would call to get paid, I couldn’t issue payment since I had not approved the work.”
Ferrante’s evidence also detailed cases where certain companies had become regular recipients of direct orders. Amongst these were Rea Ceramics, which he said had been entrusted with a lot of work at the Attard primary school, under the name of the company itself or of other related companies of Anton Cutajar, from Birzebbugia, which forms part of Galea’s electoral constituencies.
These related companies included Ethel Ltd, which Ferrante said had taken payments without his authorisation for work conducted on the Attard primary. “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.” Rea Ceramics and Ethel Ltd were paid a total of Lm18,523 in 2002.
Ferrante would later claim he had been a scapegoat when his contract was terminated just one week following the presentation of the list of direct orders in Parliament, back in October 2003. Ferrante had been on a definite contract of three years since February 2002 on a salary of Lm12,000. He denied having been the author of any “abusive” direct orders or quotations.
With him came the transfer of three project managers at the FTS back to the Education Division – Carmelo Sciberras, Joe Grima and George Camilleri. It was later revealed that substantial amounts of direct orders had been awarded to constituents of Louis Galea.
Board member Mario Callus was subsequently appointed executive director following Ferrante’s sacking, but was removed from the board along with Conrad Thake in April 2004.
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