MCAST audit from 2023 incomplete, pending ‘some issues’

MCAST’s external auditors have not signed off on the college’s 2023 accounts pending talks with the institution’s board of directors, the company said.

“We have not completed the audit pending some issues to be discussed in confidence with the MCAST board of directors,” PKF Malta was quoted on Saturday by Times of Malta.

Serious questions have been raised about MCAST’s internal controls after its finance manager and former PN local councillor, Francine Farrugia, was charged with embezzling €2.3 million from college funds.

The alleged fraud was uncovered by the police and not the institute itself. The funds were allegedly siphoned off in the form of double salaries between September 2023 and May 2025. The additional amounts were paid into Farrugia’s accounts.

An analysis presented in court showed that €422,420 was transferred to her bank account, while €1.9 million went to her Revolut account.

Police informed MCAST in July about the investigation and stopped a €122,000 payment to Farrugia’s account.

Farrugia had purchased property, entered into several promise-of-sale agreements, and bought vehicles and luxury goods. The court heard she spent €113,000 at Harrods in London on clothes and jewellery.

Concerns about MCAST’s payroll controls had been flagged as early as 2019 by the National Audit Office. In its report, the NAO found “various inaccuracies” in payments to employees after a random check.

“Although if taken individually, amounts were not always material, the incidence of inaccuracies is of concern,” the auditor general wrote at the time.

MCAST had confirmed to the NAO that its payroll’s built-in validation system “does not function”. This meant errors such as a lecturer entering 100 hours of overtime in a single day would not be automatically flagged.

A follow-up audit in 2023 found the necessary controls were still missing.

Education Minister Clifton Grima on Friday promised to leave “no stone unturned” in finding the truth about the scandal, offering MCAST the help of the government’s Internal Audit and Investigations Department.

On the same day, MCAST said it had suspended Farrugia and that “an external audit is underway”. The college said it began introducing changes to its payroll system in the first quarter of the year. 

This new system includes a verification mechanism and links to other platforms to improve governance, transparency, and accountability.