Evarist Bartolo sues Times of Malta, Beppe Fenech Adami over FTS allegations

Education minister Evarist Bartolo will be suing the Times of Malta and Beppe Fenech Adami for libel over allegations made this afternoon during a press conference addressed by Fenech Adami and Nationalist Party candidate Ivan Bartolo.

“Despite a number of statements and the Minister’s statement in Parliament yesterday, the Times of Malta decided to publish a defamatory article containing false information regarding Minister Evarist Bartolo,” read a ministry statement.

The ministry was reacting to a press conference held in front of the Education ministry this morning, where Fenech Adami said that the latest development in the “corruption scandal within the Education ministry,” are very serious and that minister Evarist Bartolo must be held politically responsible for his actions, adding that what Bartolo had done is disrespectful to tax-paying citizens since Bartolo had signed off on a contractor being paid double the price which had been agreed upon.

“After being caught, Evarist Bartolo is now trying to find excuses to avoid having to take political responsibility, and is at times saying that the previous administration is to blame, while at others saying that he has found the solution. The only solution he found was for the company in question, because the money he gave to this company should never have been paid,” said Fenech Adami.

Bartolo has come under renewed pressure over allegations of corruption at the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools (FTS). On Sunday, a report in the Sunday Times of Malta, claimed that in 2015, Bartolo signed off over €400,000 in payments to a private company – Avantgarde Projects – for unapproved works carried out at St Ignatius College, despite resistance from the FTS board.

Bartolo however has maintained that the works for which Avantgarde Projects was paid had been authorised by the FTS, and that the company had in fact settled for a lower payment than had originally been invoiced. Avantgarde Projects has denied having been paid for works it did not carry out and has said that it accepted a lower payment in order to avoid having to go to court over the matter.