MCAST staff to face disciplinary proceedings over payroll system failures
Administrative inquiry triggered after alleged €2.3 million payroll fraud by Francine Farrugia
An undisclosed number of MCAST staff are set to face disciplinary procedures following an administrative inquiry into the college’s payroll system.
The inquiry was triggered after MCAST finance manager and ex-PN councillor Francine Farrugia was charged with embezzling €2.3 million from the college by creating fake salary payments that were directed to her accounts.
According to a summary of the inquiry published by the Education Ministry, the college’s payroll systems were found to be substandard.
A full version of the inquiry report has not been released.
Times of Malta has reported how MCAST was warned about the lack of proper payroll controls by the Auditor General back in 2019, six years before the funds were allegedly embezzled by Farrugia.
The ministry said in its statement that certain unnamed MCAST officials had failed to give a true picture about the college’s efforts to improve its payroll systems based on the Auditor General’s feedback.
In the statement, the ministry said the inquiry had noted that certain aspects related to finance and payroll clearly needed to be improved and must be given due attention.
The systems, structures, composition, roles, and procedures must be reviewed and, where necessary, changed, the ministry said.
As a result of the inquiry, disciplinary proceedings will be initiated against individuals who in some way or another failed in their duties, the ministry said.
The ministry added it will ensure the report’s findings will be implemented.
Farrugia was charged in August with using millions of euros from the educational institute to buy a property, cars and to go on a €113,000 spending spree at luxury department store Harrods.
Through her work as a manager in the accounting section of MCAST, she had access to salaries and and issued duplicate salary payments between September 2023 and May 2025, according to investigators.
She allegedly issued either double salary payments to herself or generated fake payroll entries for other MCAST employees.
Her bank accounts were analysed and showed that she had transferred €422,420 there and €1.9 million into her Revolut account.
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.
Farrugia, who denies the charges, unsuccessfully contested the 2022 general election on the fifth and sixth district for the Nationalist Party.
She has since resigned as a PN councillor for Siġġiewi .