Justyne Caruana found in breach of ethics over contract to former footballer

Friday, 10 December 2021, 16:25 Last update: about 3 years ago

Education Minister Justyne Caruana breached ethics when her ministry gave a €15,000 contract to former footballer Daniel Bogdanovic.

Independent candidate Arnold Cassola said he had been informed by Standards Commissioner George Hyzler that the report on the investigation spurred by his complaint has been passed on the the Speaker of the House.

Only reports where a breach of ethics is found are passed on to the Speaker.

In a statement, Cassola said: "It is a tragedy that ethics in Maltese politics have gone to the dogs and, even worse, that this behaviour has been normalised."

MaltaToday had reported earlier this year that the Ghajnsielem coach had been given a €15,000 contract to carry out a three-month survey of sports education curricula across various Maltese schools.

Bogdanovic was described as a ‘personal friend’ of the minister, with Cassola claiming that he was, in fact, Caruana’s boyfriend.

Prime Minister Robert Abela had ordered the ministry to terminate the contract shortly after the publication of the report.

Before MaltaToday broke the contract story, the education ministry had denied that Bogdanovic had been engaged as a member of Caruana’s personal secretariat. But the PN media reported that he was still on the ministry’s payroll after the story about the contract came out.

According to procedure, it is now expected that Parliament’s standards committee will discuss the report. It is up to the same committee to decide whether to publish the report.

Reacting to the news, the Nationalist Party said that the Standards' Commissioner report should be published immediately and that if Caruana did indeed breach ethics, then she should resign or be forced to resign by Prime Minister Robert Abela.

Justyne Caruana had resigned as Gozo Minister after her former husband’s ties with Yorgen Fenech had surfaced. This followed reports of then police deputy commissioner Silvio Valletta’s friendship with the suspected mastermind of the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Caruana returned to Cabinet in November as Education Minister.