Prime minister’s brother-in-law gets bigger budget boost

As people are still calculating how they will benefit from the tax cut announced by the government in its 2025 budget, with the maximum reduction capped at €650 a year, the prime minister’s brother-in-law, Albert Zerafa, has seen his potential earnings increase by another €10,000 with the stroke of a pen.

According to a list of direct orders issued by the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA) and published in the Government Gazette, Zerafa was given a new contract to provide legal services to the government competition authority for €50 an hour up to 10,000 a year.

This is the latest of a raft of contracts awarded without any competition to Lydia Abela’s brother.

Only last week, The Shift revealed that Zerafa and his wife, Valentina Lattughi, were inserted on another list of government retainers, earning €20,000 between them from the Building and Construction Agency (BCA). All ten lawyers ‘selected’ to assist BCA clients are somehow related to the Labour Party or Labour members of the cabinet.

Zerafa, a lawyer from Bormla, has been increasing his presence in the government’s direct orders list since his brother-in-law became prime minister in 2020.

Apart from the BCA and the MCCAA, Zerafa also receives payments from Malta Strategic Projects Partnerships Ltd—better known as Projects Malta—an OPM agency from which he draws another €9,500 a year for ‘consultancy’, the Housing Authority (€10,000 a year), and, until a few months ago, was the board secretary of a government technology company—Malta Government Technology Investments Ltd.

Zerafa’s young assistant in his legal office, Joey Reno Vella, has also benefited from the current financial boom from government coffers.

The 28-year-old was recently appointed chairman of the Authority for the Responsible Use of Cannabis and paid tens of thousands for his part-time role.