Education Minister Evarist Bartolo’s person of trust, who is being investigated on corruption allegations, hand-delivered nearly €9 million worth of cheques to tens of contractors and suppliers involved in works at government schools over the last three years.

The Sunday Times of Malta is informed that the police and the government’s Internal Audit and Investigations Department are analysing the hundreds of cheques personally delivered by Edward Caruana.

This newspaper has acquired a list of these payments and suppliers concerned. Also under police scrutiny are supplies made by the businesses in question.

Mr Caruana is Mr Bartolo’s long-time canvasser whom he put in charge of infrastructural projects within the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools (FTS). His activity in that role is suspected of being linked to a large property development he has in Rabat.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that Mr Caruana has been personally hand-delivering payments to building contractors and suppliers from the first days since Mr Bartolo appointed him to the FTS to take care of projects. We are sifting through all payments that he insisted on delivering personally since 2014,” a source close to the investigations said.

“We are also trying to find out if some of the contractors are somehow involved in the building of his four-storey development in Rabat or contributed in kind, through building materials or personnel, towards his personal project,” the source said.

Last week, when the FTS scandal broke following the publication of a damning resignation letter sent by CEO Philip Rizzo, Mr Bartolo admitted he had known at least since April 2016 that Mr Caruana was personally delivering FTS payments.

However, he said he had agreed with Mr Rizzo that this ‘practice’ must stop and that Caruana should be transferred to another FTS office.

In his resignation letter, Mr Rizzo accused the minister of trying to dissuade him from reporting multiple wrongdoings at the foundation.

Mr Bartolo’s initial reaction was to say he acted immediately he got to know of the alleged abuses at the end of August.

He later changed his version to say he had been informed since April 2016 but was waiting for “a smoking gun”.

We are sifting through all payments that Edward Caruana insisted on delivering personally since 2014

Information acquired by this newspaper shows that between the start of 2014 and the end of August 2016, when Mr Caruana was ordered to leave the FTS, he personally delivered cheques amounting to €8.9 million.

The list (see table) mostly includes building contractors who were working on government school projects, furniture and building material suppliers, aluminium installers and providers of bathrooms and related furnishings.

Some of them, paid hundreds of thousands of euros, were given direct orders on the instructions of Mr Caruana himself.

In some instances, the payments to individual contractors and suppliers surpassed the million euro mark.

In a statement in Parliament earlier this week, Mr Bartolo said he had received information that a contractor, Joe Carabott, had been asked by Mr Caruana to delay the works at the new government school building in Dingli in exchange for a three per cent commission or a container full of tiles.

The minister said he met Mr Carabott who confirmed he had been asked by Mr Caruana to delay the works but denied the commission claim.

According to government procurement rules, a delay in works leads to higher rates being paid than through the normal tendering process.

However, this requires the approval of the Permanent Secretary of the ministry involved.

Speaking to the Times of Malta earlier this week, the minister said Mr Caruana has been one of his main canvassers since 1992 and used to form part of his private secretariat between 1996 and 1998 during Labour’s short stint in power.

Soon after Labour’s success at the polls in 2013, Mr Bartolo appointed Mr Caruana as his person of trust at the FTS and put him in charge of infrastructural projects.

FTS sources said Mr Caruana was put on a “fat” salary when compared to what he used to have as a government employee at the Rural Affairs Ministry.

Asked for a copy of Mr Caruana’s contract, the Education Ministry declined the request.

In the summer of 2015, during a meeting on the Gozo sixth form extension in the presence of Mr Bartolo, an FTS official declared that a Gozitan contractor, Giovann Vella, reported that Mr Caruana had asked him for a €30,000 bribe.

Following the meeting, Mr Caruana reported the case to the police who instituted defamation charges against the contractor for tarnishing his reputation.

In court, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Joseph Caruana, who happens to be Edward’s brother, said he did not feel it was his duty to ask the police to investigate the corruption claims.

It was also in the summer of 2015 that Mr Caruana started developing his private residence in Rabat into a four-storey building that includes six garages, an office, six apartments and a large penthouse. When finished, the development is estimated to have a market value of between €1.5 and €2 million, according to sources.

So far, Mr Bartolo has declared he has lost trust in Edward Caruana but does not feel politically responsible for his actions.

The Opposition has demanded he take responsibility and resign as minister.

FTS payments hand delivered by Edward Caruana

ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com