San Andrea School’s management team has yet to take allegations of mismanagement of millions of euros to the police, Times of Malta has learnt.
The school confirmed on Friday that it had launched an independent inquiry into a series of claims by former assistant head Trevor Templeman related to financial irregularities to the tune of over €4 million.
However, the Mġarr school has still to go to the police with the allegations, with a spokesperson for the force saying that, so far, no reports on the issue have been lodged.
Chairperson Alexander Tortell told Times of Malta the board would take “all necessary action” following the inquiry.
The school’s board set up the inquiry on October 11.
Times of Malta is informed the school will be holding two “information” meetings on the matter today, one for staff in the morning and a second one for both educators and parents in the evening.
Templeman went public with the allegations after claiming he was “sidelined and intimidated” by the school’s management team when he flagged financial issues that were highlighted to him by the school’s principal.
Assistant head confirms being told about irregularities
One of the private school’s assistant heads, Ruth Azzopardi, who has worked at San Andrea for over 20 years, on Sunday said she confirmed being called in for a meeting with Templeman and that both of them were told about the financial irregularities by the principal.
“We had lots of meetings together since we were both assistant heads in the primary sector. I still work at the school. Yes, I was present in the same room as Templeman,” Azzopardi said.
Templeman is alleging that the school’s principal told him and Azzopardi that former chairperson Kevin Spiteri had defrauded the school of some €200,000 through “miscellaneous” transactions. He was also told, he said, that Spiteri benefited from projects totalling some €4 million.
The principal, Templeman claims, also told the pair about another staff member being paid €25,000 to keep quiet.
Times of Malta has contacted Spiteri about the claims. He would not comment and, instead, asked for questions to be sent to his lawyer, Ian Vella Galea.
“For the time being, my client shall await the outcome of the school’s independent inquiry, to dispel claims being put forward. In the meantime, my client is reserving all his rights with respect to such defamatory allegations,” Vella Galea said.
When going public with the claims, Templeman also published a recording of his testimony on the matter, which he gave during a 40-minute meeting with the board. He outlined the information supplied to him and gave a detailed account of the meeting.
According to Templeman, two months after alerting Tortell and sharing the fraud allegations, he was reassigned duties, with the school saying this was because of a pending legal case against him involving cyberbullying. Templeman denies the allegations against him.
He told parents in an email that “Tortell wanted to find a reason to fire [him] so as to shut [him] up and as revenge for disclosing that information as regards the school’s finances”.