Former CEO of Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools (FTS) Philip Rizzo testified in court this morning that Education minister Evarist Bartolo had sent him three consecutive messages on his first three days on the job to keep a close eye on the accused.
Edward Caruana, a former canvasser for Bartolo, is accused of asking for thousands in bribes from contractors to be awarded contracts for building and maintaining of public schools.
Rizzo (photo above) explained that he entered the position of CEO ON 13 April 2016 that in addition to the messages, Bartolo also said that "we" would be speaking to Caruana about several cheques he passed on in Gozo.
Rizzo told presiding magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech that in addition, he also received messages saying "how are you dealing with Dwardu?" and another asking what Caruana is up to.
When questioned by the prosecution, Rizzo said that from the messages it appeared that Bartolo was concerned about the way Caruana operates. Days after taking up the position, The Sunday Times of Malta published the story of bribery allegations by Caruana.
Rizzo testified that on 22 April, FTS COO Tony Muscat who used to be employed as the CEO, had sent him a memorandum containing allegations of requests for fraudulent payments.
The court heard how these claims amounted to €25,000 and related to works on a toilet at a school in Gozo between August and September 2015.
Rizzo raised concerns as to why this request for payment is being made for works carried out nine months before, to which Muscat told him that Caruana passed on the documents just one day earlier.
Rizzo said he could not authorise the payments. He added that the works on the toilets were certified by a Gozitan architect, Cornelia Tabone.
He also said that the invoices appeared suspicious; three of them were not signed and that other signatures clearly appeared to be falsified.
When questioned by prosecuting inspector Rennie Stivala, Rizzo said that he ended up in a situation where he is being asked to approve payments for works that did not take place in his time as CEO and that those payments appeared suspicious from the get-go.
According to procurement rules, invoices exceeding €2,500 must be accompanied by a public call rather than a personal authorisation from the entity. This led to the memorandum being sent to Permanent Secretary for Education Joseph Caruana.
Following this, Rizzo received a phone call from Edward Caruana aggressively asking why he sent the memorandum to the permanent secretary. Because of the events, Rizzo testified that he issued an order to stop all payments being made that are issued directly from the bank, and also relayed this request to the finance ministry.
Rizzo continued to say that after carrying out an investigation, it resulted that in three and a half years there were substantial amounts of cheques sent from the Finance Department to Edward Caruana. It transpired that out of €8.2 million in cheques, €5.5 million went to 16 suppliers.
Rizzo added that he had been subjected to "internal pressure" to pay the claims.
That May he had held a meeting with the seven contractors who were awaiting payment. Placing the invoices before them, Rizzo had asked why none of them had filed legal proceedings to collect their dues. "They looked at each other, puzzled and said: 'we aren't owed anything by FTS.'"
About a month later, in June 2016, Rizzo had met one of the contractors who had been absent for the meeting, Joe Carabott and asked him the same question. Carabott had replied that he had never worked in Gozo, adding that the signature on the invoice was not his.
Rizzo also confirmed that Edward Caruana would deal with all FTS work relating to Gozo.
Towards the end of August, Anthony Muscat, Head of Operations had told Rizzo that Carabott had complained to him that the accused was ringing him up every day telling him not to finish the works he was carrying out at the school in Dingli on time "so that the Foundation will look bad."
On 30 August, Rizzo had met Carabott at the Dingli school. "Aren't they telling you what's happening then?" asked the contractor who broke down in tears saying he could not pay Caruana and that he was making a loss on the contract.
Caruana had been pressing him for a 3% commission on the value of the works and to supply him with a 40 foot container full of floor tiles of his choosing, he said.
Rizzo ordered checks to be made at the Planning Authority, which confirmed his suspicions that Caruana had been developing a block of apartments in Rabat.
He had immediately informed the Minister, who said he would send for Carabott. Two days later, Rizzo received an email from the Minister informing him that Carabott had denied everything, except for the pressure to drag out the works.
However, on 1 September, the Minister had given instructions that Edward Caruana be transferred from FTS to his original post.
But when the Office of the Prime Minister came to be informed of the transfer, the Permanent Secretary had radically altered the decision by the Minister, ordering that his brother be transferred to another Ministry with a salary of €50,000.
On September 22, 2016 Rizzo had asked for and was granted permission by the FTS board to hand over all the relative documentation to the police in order for Caruana to be prosecuted.
Rizzo had eventually tendered his resignation from the post on December 1 2016. Asked why, he said that he could not continue to work when instructions that he had given about working hours and security of documents were being revoked by the Ministry of Education.
Inspector Rennie Stivala is prosecuting. Lawyers Stefano Filletti and Stephen Tonna Lowell are defence counsel to Edward Caruana.
from The Malta Independent http://ift.tt/2rUgDVe
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