Standards Commissioner finds Justyne Caruana breached ethics in sports contract gift to boyfriend

Updated at 4:37 pm with Nationalist Party statement 

The Standards Commissioner has concluded an investigation into Education Minister Justyne Caruana and her decision to gift her boyfriend a €5,000-per-month sports contract.

George Hyzler has passed on his findings to parliament’s ethics committee, which has to decide whether to make the report public or not.

The fact that Hyzler has passed on the findings to the committee without publishing the report himself, signals that a breach of ethics has been established.

Under established practice, the Standards Commissioner cannot divulge the contents of his report to the complainant and the person under investigation but duly informs them that the investigation has been concluded, if a breach of ethics is established.

The investigation was requested by independent candidate Arnold Cassola after MaltaToday revealed how Caruana gifted former footballer Daniel Bogdanovic a three-month contract worth €15,000 to review the national sports curriculum.

Bogdanovic is Caruana’s boyfriend and has no pedagogical training.

The information that Hyzler concluded the probe and passed on the report to the committee was communicated by Cassola.

“Today we have another confirmation of the pig-sty behaviour of another member of parliament. It is a tragedy that ethics in Maltese politics have gone to the dogs and, even worse, that this behaviour has been normalised,” Cassola said.

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Nationalist Party insists report should be published

The Nationalist Party has said the Standards Commissioner report should be published “immediately”.

“If she is found to have breached ethics, Justyne Caruana should immediately resign or be forced to resign by Robert Abela, who has tolerated standards failures for too long,” the party said.

The PN said Caruana should lead by example and not award contracts of €5,000 per month to her partner.