Independent schools manage to get some of their overdue funds

The Independent Schools Association has reported that all its member schools were paid reimbursements until March 2014.

In a meeting requested by the ISA with Education Minister Evarist Bartolo and ministry officials Wednesday afternoon to conclusively settle the reimbursement issue, a modality for the submission of reimbursement returns common to all schools was agreed upon in order to standardise submission procedures and hereby facilitate and expedite processing.

It was further agreed during the meeting that a substantial amount of the reimbursement figure still due to Independent schools would be settled by the ministry by the end of the current calendar year. 

Reimbursement payments thereafter would be made by the ministry on a termly basis.

“The ISA and its member schools were surprised to note on Tuesday that delays in reimbursements to Independent Schools relative to LSA salaries were deemed by the Ministry of Education and Employment to be ‘compounded’ by invoices which were submitted ‘very late’ by a number of schools and that this led to a ‘derailment’ in the repayment process.

“The ISA strongly affirms that this claim is not reflective of the general current standpoint of its member schools and equally strongly feels that it should have no bearing whatsoever on the late payment of the reimbursements due to its schools.”