Daughter of Ian Borg’s senior adviser quits in storm over direct orders

Adreana Zammit has quit her role as a lawyer with Transport Malta in the wake of criticism that she was awarded lucrative contracts even before she graduated as a lawyer.

Zammit is the daughter of Transport Minister Ian Borg’s senior adviser, Jesmond Zammit.

Borg confirmed this afternoon that the lawyer quit out of her own free will since she felt that her work at the ministry was unfairly targeted because of her father’s political connections.

Times of Malta revealed on Monday how Zammit was handed a €62,400 contract by direct order to serve as a junior lawyer with the ministry months before obtaining her warrant.

The contract was awarded on 24 October, 2019 and she graduated as a lawyer two months later, receiving her warrant in January.

She was then awarded an additional direct order in August last year for a “legal consultation agreement” that lasted six months and netted the junior lawyer another €46,142.

By the end of 2020, just one year after graduating, Zammit was paid at least €108,542 in direct orders for her legal services.

Commenting to the media on his way in to parliament, Borg denied involvement in the lawyer's recruitment but defended her appointment and praised her for her work. 

The case is being investigated by the Standards Commissioner and on Monday, Prime Minister Robert Abela said he was looking into the facts before deciding what course of action, if at all, to take.

Borg said today that after the media reports came out he enquired about the facts. “The person in question has been giving her service to the authority for a long time, and she is a very competent lawyer… She always did her job and she earned her pay by doing work that needed to be done,” he said.