EU Erasmus funds probe simply ‘damage control’

Last May, students planning to experience studying abroad for a term or two were in for an abrupt change of plans, as The Lifelong Learning and Youth In Action programmes were suspended last by the European Union following administrative issues.

In an opinion piece published in The Sunday Times, Bezzina – one of the three senior education officials who resigned after being singled out as responsible - hits out at how the investigation lasted only a handful of days and simply acted to protect top ministry officials from the fallout.

He maintained that his alleged mismanagement was not the issue, and that this was “well known by the people who set up the so-called board of inquiry.”

“Working within the civil service has shown me that networking among top officials is extremely strong and is based on work practices that are there to safeguard the boys (or girls) irrespective of what they do,” he said.

Bezzina wrote also how “the way the exercise was undertaken by administrators within the Office of the Prime Minister showed that concern was raised as to how to handle the matter with least embarrassment to the government. The exercise was executed clinically within just a few days. That is how seriously the matter was handled.”

“The pound of flesh had to be offered to appease the masses,” he said, insisting that he acted with “full support of my minister.”

He also hit out at the jury that ‘presided’ over his investigation as being biased, and said that “what did not come out in the board of inquiry proceedings was the mismanagement from the people of higher authority than my office, and those even higher than the minister’s, and mismanagement within the European Union Programmes Agency.”

“At the superficial level all looks good, but when you scratch the surface, you realise that the focus has been on technical issues, on reaching specific goals at whatever the cost; at putting the interest of some people as against the common good; at being dishonest in their practices; at claiming virtuosity and uprighteousness when reality shows otherwise,” he wrote.

“In spite of discussions, the government officials who had vested interests in the matter ended up offering my scalp in spite of the fact that 16 months before I had been described as the ‘new broom’, and that three months before judgment was passed I was given the responsibility of a mega-ministry, being told that the Prime Minister believed in my capabilities to lead the ministry forward.”

Bezzina was determined to have been one of three education officials responsible for the blunder, all who later resigned. The investigation was prompted by widespread public outrage, interspersed with calls for Education Minister Dolores Cristina to accept responsibility and step down.

Famously, Cristina remarked during an interview that she was not to blame for the loss of thousands of Euro’s worth of EU education funding simply because she was not aware of what was going on in her own ministry.

The incident led to a barrage of criticism which threatened to overwhelm the beleaguered minister, even leading to a vote of no confidence (that was eventually defeated) in parliament in June 2010.