Evarist Bartolo admits he was informed of alleged abuse in April

Embattled Education Minister Evarist Bartolo yesterday admitted that he was first informed of alleged abuse by his canvasser Edward Caruana in April and not August, as he originally claimed.

Mr Bartolo had said on Saturday in a right of reply sent to this newspaper: “I was made aware of the allegations by Philip Rizzo at the end of August 2016 and not April 2016.” In Parliament yesterday, Mr Bartolo said that on April 16, he was informed by Mr Rizzo that Mr Caruana was insisting on personally delivering payment cheques to contractors.

However, the veteran minister continued to fend off accusations from ex-Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools CEO Philip Rizzo that he had tried to dissuade Mr Rizzo from reporting (“formalising”) the irregularities.

Mr Bartolo told Parliament that he only instructed Mr Rizzo to wait for evidence and “a smoking gun” before taking action against Mr Caruana, his canvasser since 1992.

Quoting from his reply to Mr Rizzo’s message, the minister said he had told the CEO to treat Mr Caruana “like any normal employee” – fairly but firmly.  “No one is outside good governance regulations… let us address issues effectively through structures.”

During yesterday’s...