‘Zammit Young given €75,000 golden handshake before magistrate nomination’

A lawyer who was nominated to become a magistrate before turning down her call to the bench after the Commission for the Administration of Justice raised doubts on her constitutional validity, received a €75,000 payout to leave her job, a few days before her nomination.

The Sunday Times of Malta claimed that a few days before the government nominated her as a magistrate, Ingrid Zammit Young successfully negotiated a €75,000 golden handshake to leave her job at GO and avail herself of a voluntary redundancy scheme.

Zammit Young admitted to signing a contract to end her job a week prior to the nomination, but according to the newspaper, the lawyer insisted this was just a “coincidence” and had nothing to do with her eventual nomination by justice minister Owen Bonnici.

Bonnici has denied to nominating Zammit Young as magistrate due to his alleged political connections with her father. Zammit Young’s father is Godwin Young, a Labour canvasser hailing from Marsaskala who is claimed to have helped the justice minister in the past electoral campaign.

43-year-old Ingrid Zammit Young, an in-house lawyer at Go plc, turned down the post this week after the Commission for the Administration of Justice said that her chairmanship of the Employment Commission precluded her from becoming magistrate as the Constitution states that nominees are not eligible until three years after their termination of public office.

“In the CAJ’s opinion, there is the possibility of an obstacle to her appointment, because Ingrid Zammit Young served as chairman of the Employment of the Commission, which according to Article 120 (4) of the Constitution, precludes her from an appointment to a public role before the lapse of three years from her last day on the Commission,” the CAJ said.

Zammit Young was recommended as magistrate alongside Caroline Farrugia Frendo, daughter of Speaker of the House of Representatives and former Labour deputy leader Anglu Farrugia.

Farrugia Frendo’s nomination, controversial for the fact that she has not yet completed the minimum seven years’ practice experience since taking her oath in March 2009, also elicited controversy and on Sunday, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil declared that the nomination had turned Malta into a ‘banana republic’.

Busuttil made the comments in the wake of a report by MaltaToday which held that the nomination of Farrugia Frendo is being interpreted as a sob to her father after he made it clear to his close associates that he was interested in replacing Louis Galea at the European Court of Auditors for the €240,000 a-year-job – a post which has since been taken up by outgoing Labour Deputy leader Toni Abela.

PN leader Simon Busuttil has since declared that Farrugia Frendo’s nomination was a clear breach of the Constitution and should be withdrawn immediately. Busuttil has also claimed that the 33-year-old lawyer was “clearly” nominated because of her familial relationships, declaring that “nepotism is a form of corruption.”