Auditors yet to sign off on MCAST accounts ‘pending some issues’
PKF Malta say they never completed an audit of the college's 2023 accounts
MCAST’s external auditors have yet to sign off on an audit of the public education institution’s 2023 accounts.
Auditors PFK told Times of Malta that they have not completed the audit “pending some issues to be discussed in confidence with MCAST board of directors”.
Serious questions have been raised about MCAST’s internal controls after its finance manager and ex-PN councillor Francine Farrugia was charged with embezzling €2.3 million.
It was the police, rather than MCAST, who uncovered the alleged fraud.
The money was allegedly siphoned out of MCAST between September 2023 and May 2025 through “double salaries”, allegedly paid directly into Farrugia’s accounts.
An analysis of her accounts showed that she had transferred €422,420 there and €1.9 million into her Revolut account.
The police contacted MCAST in July to inform them of the investigation and prevented a €122,000 transfer to Farrugia’s account.
The police found that Farrugia had bought a property in Malta and entered into several promise-of-sale agreements on other properties. She also bought vehicles and luxury clothes during the two-year period.
She spent €113,000 at Harrods in London on clothes and jewellery, the court was told.
A public-spending watchdog raised alarm about the lack of proper payroll controls at MCAST years before the alleged swindle.
Alarm bells about the lack of internal payroll controls at MCAST were first raised back in 2019 by the auditor general.
The incidence of inaccuracies is of concern- Auditor General
An audit by the National Audit Office turned up “various inaccuracies” after a random test of allowances and payments by MCAST to its employees.
“Although if taken individually, amounts were not always material, the incidence of inaccuracies is of concern,” the auditor general wrote.
MCAST confirmed during the audit that the payroll’s inbuilt validation system “does not function”.
“As a result, if an obvious error is recorded, for instance, 100 hours of overtime are inputted by a lecturer for a particular day, this is not being automatically flagged by the system,” the auditor general said.
A follow-up audit in 2023 by the auditor general found the necessary payroll controls were still lacking.
Education Minister Clifton Grima on Friday vowed to leave “no stone unturned” in getting to the bottom of the €2.3 million embezzlement scandal at MCAST. Grima offered the institution the services of the government’s Internal Audit and Investigations Department.
On Friday, MCAST said it had suspended Farrugia, adding that “an external audit is underway”.
In a separate statement, MCAST said it began introducing changes to the payroll system in the first quarter of the year.The system features a built-in verification mechanism and is integrated with other platforms to strengthen governance, improve transparency, and ensure accountability, it said.