Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1399957
13 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 AUGUST 2021 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The inquiry board forwarded their report to the police for in- vestigation in 2018. Yet the education ministry – namely spokesperson Etienne St John, permanent secretary Frank Fabri and MCAST principal James Calleja – have since Feb- ruary 2021 refused to answer re- peated requests by MaltaToday to explain why Abdilla remains suspended on full pay, despite the findings of the inquiry. This week, contacted by phone, Prof. Calleja confirmed Abdilla had not been reinstated after the inquiry's report was finalised. But he refused to confirm that she remains suspended on full pay, four years since the finalisa- tion of the inquiry report. MaltaToday is informed that in February 2019, the police in- vestigation had been passed on to the Attorney General, with no progress registered since then. Top brass ignored reports against Abdilla Not only was Abdilla revealed to have been a much reviled ex- ecutive at MCAST due to her bullying of subordinates and confrontation with other staff and lecturers, but college top brass failed to take decisive ac- tion against her for years. In this environment of terror, only a small group of whistle- blowers had the courage to re- port Abdilla, for having repeat- edly tried to influence them when selecting candidates for MCAST teaching jobs. It was on the back of this com- plaint that Abdilla was placed on forced leave. But in a bid to kick back against the allegations, Abdilla fired off an email to the education ministry claiming to "know about things that could cause some discomfort". The threat was interpreted as blackmail, and the ministry launched an inquiry. Yet no fac- tual evidence could be brought by Abdilla to corroborate what she claimed had been corrup- tion and bribery inside MCAST. For example, at one point she alleged that a former chairman of MCAST's board of governors, Silvio de Bono, was pocketing a bribe from new teachers select- ed for a job. Abdilla retracted the allegation, which turned out to be a lie. Indeed, Abdilla was found to have perjured herself before the board of inquiry, when faced with reports from three whistle- blowers that she pressured the into favouring particular candi- dates for teaching jobs. Abdilla would claim with these members of the MCAST in- terviewing panel that she had been instructed by top brass such as the ministry or Silvio de Bono, to pick the candidates of her choosing. In one case she complained that an unqualified candidate for a part-time lectur- ing post was not selected, "was required to be selected at all costs". The whistleblowers said that while Abdilla's favouritism did not seem to be linked to po- litical affinity – although she boasted of being close to the Labour administration (she had been hand-picked by the Labour administration to form part of a ministerial inquiry into Cor- radino Correctional Facility) – she exerted great pressure on interviewing board members, even forcing them to change the scores they gave to candidates during job interviews. In the case of a particular can- didate for an English lecturing post, Abdilla ordered one of the members that the candidate had to "come first", and that the rest of the interviewing board had to be told that the candidate came "strongly recommended". Abdilla even instigated them not to grade positively a female candidate who was pregnant, because the college would be forced to pay for her pregnancy leave. It was only when one of the interviewing board members re- fused to be cowed by Abdilla, that a report was filed to both deputy principal Vincent Maione and principal James Calleja. The whistleblower accused Abdilla of using her alleged influence with the education ministry to pressure interview panel mem- ber to select her favoured job candidates. Abdilla attempted to placate the whistleblower, by pleading as justification for favouring one certain candidate that their fa- ther "could have helped MCAST a lot". Unperturbed, the whis- tleblower filed a new complaint with MCAST's grievance officer, Anthony Saliba, so that it would reach Frederick Schembri, the then-chairman of the MCAST board of governors (who had re- placed De Bono). The whistleblowers were praised by the board of inquiry for coming forward with such detail on what they said was "wrong, illegal and immoral". They said Abdilla's denials and the possibility that she had with- held information during the in- quiry, had to be reported to the police. In comment to MaltaTo- day, former MCAST chairman Frederick Schembri said he was unable to say what action had been taken by the college prin- cipal at the time. "As chairman of the board of governors, we communicated the recommen- dations of the inquiry board, to the MCAST principal. I cannot say whether they were eventu- ally implemented, nor what the outcome of the police investiga- tion was." mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Sacked MCAST executive influenced selection of teachers • Former HR executive was bully who tried forcing selection of favoured candidates for teaching posts, until whistleblowers called time on her • When she was placed on forced leave, she alleged corruption and bribery • But a board of inquiry disproved her claims, and found she had perjured herself