FMS CEO Carmen Ciantar has withdrawn her self-suspension and will return back to her job “to finish what we started”.

In a statement on Monday, Ciantar said that “the truth and my integrity have won out over the massive and moneyed dark forces which tried to annihilate both.”

Ciantar tendered her “suspension” from the post of CEO at the Foundation for Medical Services on 1 June after a Pakistani news portal report claimed that she had received a bribe.

The Health Ministry had published correspondence from Ciantar saying she was taking the decision in the interests of the ministry but should in no way mean that this is “an admission of guilt”.

Health Minister Chris Fearne had accepted the “suspension” urged the police to investigate the allegations made against her.

Daily Pakistan had reported that Ciantar received several payments totalling €443,500 from Gozo International Medicare Ltd between October 2015 and February 2016.

The news portal claimed that the information came from leaked banking documents, which indicated there were at least 15 invoices submitted to Gozo International Medicare by Ciantar.

In her statement Monday, Ciantar said that “when the totally false but grave allegations about me and my daughter hit the headlines I immediately suspended myself from the post of CEO at FMS to be able to fully and serenely defend my integrity, that of the Health Ministry and the entire government.”

She had then voluntarily gone to “the Police Commissioner as well as to the Magistrate scrutinising the VGH and Steward contracts to offer them my full and transparent cooperation in all the investigations they wished to conduct. And that’s what they did.”

Asked whether her statement means that the magistrate and police have concluded their investigations, Ciantar said that she had no further comments to make.

In her statement Monday, Ciantar said that she“walked in with head held high and that’s how I walked out.”

“Today, two months after this horrible ordeal started, I stand tall. As a lone individual, as a woman, I managed to thwart the evil plans of dark and hidden forces which are much, much bigger than me.

“I thank my daughter, my family, friends and colleagues at FMS who stood by me throughout it all. They did not need the police or the courts to continue to believe in my innocence.

“One final point. Terrible as this experience was and despite the heavy toll it took on me, it nevertheless strengthened my faith in the highest value of all – truth and integrity cannot be vanquished.

“With this mind, I am withdrawing my self-suspension and returning back to my post at FMS to finish what we started.”