Somebody else has discovered that he who sups with the devil needs a long spoon

Philip Rizzo, who last April took up the position of CEO at the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools, the government organisation which has a budget of many millions to build and refurbish state schools, has resigned, saying in his resignation letter that he has gone to the police and to the Permanent Commission Against Corruption with voluminous documentation about crimes that have been committed in the misuse of public funds.

He accuses the permanent secretary at the Education Ministry, Joseph Caruana, and the Education Minister himself, Evarist Bartolo, of delaying or frustrating a proper investigation and redress, and says to the permanent secretary that the crimes were committed by, among others, “a member of your own family”.

The salient point not contained in the resignation letter is that the individual to whom Rizzo refers is the permanent secretary’s brother, Edward Caruana, who was employed as a ‘person of trust’ at the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools after working as a vote-canvasser for Evarist Bartolo in the general election campaign. The allegations are that he has been involved in systematic corruption in the purchasing of infrastructural equipment for state schools in the last three years.

Rizzo realised soon after becoming CEO last April what had been going on. If only he were as perspicacious when he campaigned so assiduously for the election of the Labour Party in 2013, fawning publicly over Muscat and his promises on the Labour Party’s television station.

I am afraid that he is another one of those who has discovered rather too late that he who sups with the Devil needs a long spoon.