San Andrea: board chair, principal step down pending internal ‘fraud’ inquiry

The chairperson of the board of San Andrea School has temporarily stepped down from his role, pending an internal inquiry over claims of financial mismanagement.

The allegations pre-date Alex Tortell’s term in office, but according to a former assistant head of school, he was the chair of the board who first received the allegations back in June 2022.

Tortell informed a hall of around 700 parents and school staff on Monday that he wanted to clear his name. “I have worked hard like all of you to have a reputation, integrity and dignity and I won’t let anyone take that away from me. I will even take legal action to clear my name,” Tortell said.

Teacher’s resignation raises storm over San Andrea fraud allegations

San Andrea School is now carrying out an internal inquiry over claims of financial misappropriation, which former assistant head Trevor Templeman, testifying to the board in September 2022, say were first communicated to him by school principal Stefania Bartolo against Tortell’s predecessor, Kevin Spiteri.

Templeman, who resigned his job, informed school parents in an email that since he had blown the whistle on Bartolo’s allegations that Spiteri had defrauded the school, he had been wilfully demoted at school.

Since the story broke, principal Stefania Bartolo has also suspended herself, while a former school board member, David Wain, revealed that he had resigned the board in June 2021 after finding out that selected board members had been carrying out “paid work” for the school without his knowledge.

“I feel I need to step aside in order to set a good example in corporate good governance,” Bartolo told parents, “and in order to take legal action to defend my name and reputation, which I have worked extremely hard to build over the years,” she said.

Templeman, who insists it was Bartolo who first revealed the extent of former school board chair Kevin Spiteri’s alleged fraud, claims he was “sidelined and intimidated” by the school’s management when he reported the allegations. Templeman says Bartolo informed him and other witnesses that Spiteri had defrauded the school of some €200,000 through “miscellaneous” transactions, as well as on a multi-million lease of an Mrieħel warehouse.

Templemen repeated these allegations to the school board on 20 September, leading to the internal inquiry.

But former staff member David Wain said the inquiry should have been launched when Templeman first reported the allegations to Tortell in June 2021. Wain described feeling “shock and dismay” when he found out that selected board members were carrying out paid work for the school, and he faced strong pressure to resign from the board, then chaired by Spiteri. “When this was unsuccessful, a personal campaign against a family member who is employed at the school was carried out (in the guise of restructuring) whilst this important issue was swept under the carpet,” he said. 

Wain said board members are not entitled to receive remuneration, should avoid conflicts of interest and not receive undisclosed or unauthorised profit, among other things. 

A similar experience prevailed with Templeman, who says he was sidelined by the school management throughout the summer, was subjected to a defamatory whispering campaign, and that he was threatened over a criminal charge of cyberbullying – committed by his niece through his smartphone – which he had already disclosed to San Andrea management.

Alex Tortell has told the Times the allegations of financial mismanagement date back to the previous board. “There are zero allegations against me and the current board. The board’s mandate from the trustees was to introduce more good governance structures and procedures, starting from the complete overhaul of the obsolete statute. We introduced new financial processes and safeguards, and likewise for procurement.”