Justyne Caruana breached ethics, gave boyfriend ‘preferential treatment’ by gifting him lucrative contract

Justyne Caruana breached ministerial ethics when she accorded “preferential treatment” to her boyfriend Daniel Bogdanovic by granting him a direct order for a job he could not do.

The findings by Standards Commissioner George Hyzler were published this morning by parliament’s ethics committee.

The damning report concludes that Bogdanovic was not qualified or competent to carry out his job and every effort was done by the ministry to hide his incompetence. Hyzler found that Bogdanovic’s work was in actual fact carried out by Dr Paul Debattista, a consultant in Caruana’s ministry.

Hyzler noted that this fact was kept hidden from him when hearing testimony on the case.

In his conclusions, Hyzler asks MPs to consider whether the findings should be passed on to the police for criminal investigation.

Bogdanovic was awarded a three-month contract worth €15,000 to review the curriculum of the national sports school. A former footballer, he has no pedagogical training.

It was MaltaToday that first broke the story earlier this year after ministry officials had lied about Bogdanovic’s employment within the minister’s secretariat.

'Caruana and Fabri should resign' – Repubblika

Civil society NGO Repubblika has called for the resignation of Caruana and the permanent secretary in her ministry Frank Fabri after the Standards Commissioner ruled that an abuse of power had occurred. 

In a press conference outside of the Education Ministry on Tuesday, NGO president Robert Aquilina said that the report drawn up by the commissioner should be published immediately, even though details have leaked. 

“Parliament’s Standards Committee should not ridicule the process as was done with the recent case involving former parliamentary secretary Rosianne Cutajar,” Aquilina said. 

The president added that Prime Minister Robert Abela has remained silent and criticised the police for not starting an investigation earlier.

‘Caruana not fit to be minister’ - Arnold Cassola

Independent candidate Arnold Cassola has said that Caruana should “be immediately removed from her ministerial appointment.”

Cassola added that others should also follow suit.

“Why did the Permanent Secretary Frank Fabri sign the contract when he knew that Bogdanovic was not qualified? Why did Fabri cover-up for Caruana during the Inquiry? Why was Hyzler lied to about the active involvement of consultant Paul Debattista in all this?” Cassola asked.

More to follow.