Foundation acted on own initiative - minister

Education Minister Louis Galea told parliament yesterday that the board of the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools had acted on its own initiative when it decided to terminate the contract of the foundation's chief executive because financial regulations and procedures had not been strictly observed.

Dr Galea said he had himself said in parliament and elsewhere that the foundation should not tolerate any deviation from the financial regulations, even when such deviation was seen as necessary for works to be completed on time. Where the public interest demanded such deviations, that could only happen after the board and the Ministry of Finance were informed of the circumstances.

Replying to parliamentary questions by Labour MP Carmelo Abela, Dr Galea said he could understand the frustration felt by those who wanted to get work done quickly but were delayed by bureaucratic procedures. In such circumstances, some tried to cut corners, not for abusive purposes but for genuine reasons.

Nonetheless, his position was that there should be no deviation from procedures and policies.

There were circumstances, such as following storm damage, when he too was constrained to issue direct orders for emergency works, but he could not shoulder administrative, and, to an extent, political responsibility, when published policies and procedures were not followed.

Giving background, the minister said the foundation, following claims of lack of observance of financial regulations, had issued precise instructions to its employees to ensure that everyone was clear on the policies and procedures that had to be followed.

These instructions were circulated to all the members of staff and, around May, the board launched an audit exercise to ensure that its policies were being followed.

By September it resulted that policies were not followed at all times and, this month, the board decided that since its instructions had not been followed, it decided to terminate the CEO's contract. It also asked for a number of officials who were on loan to the foundation to be returned to the Education Division.

Dr Galea said the CEO had insisted that the rules were not strictly followed at all times because that would have caused delays which would have made it impossible for certain works in schools to be completed before the opening of the school year in mid-September.

The minister said he wanted to point out that the majority of the direct orders for works and services were issued regularly, but the foundation had insisted that this should be the case every time.

A large number of contracts were placed directly with public corporations such as Kalaxlokk and Malta Shipbuilding in terms of Finance Ministry procedures.

As for direct orders to private contractors, the financial regulations laid down that when works cost more than Lm20,000, a call for tenders had to be issued by the Contracts Department. This procedure had been followed in all cases. The financial regulations also laid down that when works cost more than Lm2,500, a departmental call for tenders was required.

Contracts for work costing less than Lm2,500 could be awarded directly by the chief executive or the board without reference to the finance ministry.

The critical point, Dr Galea said, was that there had been instances of works costing more than Lm2,500, such as one costing Lm17,000, which were broken down so that contracts could be awarded directly so that work could go ahead without delay.

Mr Joe Mizzi (MLP) asked if contracts involving architect Robert Musumeci was among such cases.

Dr Galea said that Mr Musumeci, along with many other architects, had replied to a public call for expressions of interest for work for the foundation. He was among a large number of architects, including Labour MPs, who were asked by the foundation to participate in its study on the state of all state schools in Malta.

It was not true that Mr Musumeci had been paid Lm16,000 as claimed. This amount was being contested by the foundation. It needed to be pointed out, however, that Mr Musumeci had billed the foundation according to the established tariff for architects but the foundation, in his case and that of many other architects, was seeking a lower price.