Updated | Justice Minister rebukes ADPD over call for ethics probe

Updated at 5:22pm with Edward Zammit Lewis's reaction

ADPD has asked the Standards Commissioner to investigate Edward Zammit Lewis over accusations of clientalism after awarding a direct order to a lawyer from his electoral district.

ADPD Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo wrote to George Hyzler, asking him to probe accusations that Zammit Lewis awarded a €50,000 direct order to lawyer Cheryl Azzopardi.

The lawyer is the daughter of a former aide to ex-minister Chris Cardona.

However, in a reply to Cacopardo's claims, the Justice Minister insisted that Azzopardi was one of the first lawyers to be engaged with a contract for service within the Directorate for Human Rights (HRD) when it was set up in 2015 as the Directorate for Human Rights and Integration. "At the time I was tourism minister," Zammit Lewis said.

He added that when he was appointed Equality Minister in July 2019, he re-affirmed the contract for Azzopardi in the directorate since she had been "knowledgeable and fit for purposes".

Azzopardi is part of the legal team that worked on the process to draft the Equality Bills, currently being debated in parliament.

"I believe that, minimum standards should be set for politicians to check the facts before forwarding such unfounded allegations and moreover to make caluminous reports," Zammit Lewis added.

A report in The Shift News claimed that the Justice Minister awarded the direct order to strengthen his hand on the 8th District by attracting canvassers that once supported Cardona.

“I have just asked the Standards Commissioner to investigate an abusive direct order awarded by Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis. All this is happening in a context of rampant clientalism and abuse for electoral gain,” Cacopardo said.

He added that it appeared that Zammit Lewis was abusing direct orders to strengthen his position on the Birkirkara district.