Justyne: Four jobs, €15,000 a month

Former Gozo Minister Justyne Caruana has been put on four concurrent government jobs, which provide her with an income of €15,000 a month.

Caruana, the only MP ever to be forced out of cabinet twice during the same legislature, should be ‘working’ more than 120 hours a week according to her four contracts, approved by Prime Minister Robert Abela.

The latest of Justyne Caruana’s four jobs was discovered just a few days before Christmas when the Tax Department announced that it issued a direct order to the former minister to act as an adviser on tax and customs.

But this was only the latest in a string of government jobs she has been given since she was forced to resign. She did not reply to questions from The Shift asking her to explain how she manages to put in some 120 hours of work weekly through her four different contracts.

For her latest job with the tax department, for which she has no expertise, Caruana is expected to work 30 hours a week for a total of €78,000 a year. She has been receiving her pay cheque from this job since the summer.

Caruana, who also manages to run her private legal firm in Gozo, is receiving €3,000 a month for serving as the Lands Authority’s lawyer in Gozo for at least another 20 hours a week and clocking another 20 hours a week as an adviser for Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela.

Abela employed the former MP, who he replaced in the same district, as a person of trust, paying her over €20,000 a year plus allowances for a car and communications.

Apart from all these jobs, Caruana also received a further €40,000 a year as a senior legal officer for the government’s Victims Support Agency (VSA).  This is the only job Caruana got through an official call and is considered to be her full-time job. Caruana applied to join the VSA just a week after she was sacked from cabinet at the end of 2021.

Caruana, elected to parliament for the first time in 2003, was asked to resign the first time following revelations that her husband at the time, former deputy police commissioner Silvio Valletta, had a very close relationship with businessman Yorgen Fenech, accused of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination.

The former minister had denied knowing about her husband’s relationship but still resigned. She had also left her husband after this affair, while Valletta resigned from the police in disgrace.

Less than a year later, Caruana was re-appointed to the cabinet as Education Minister by Robert Abela. However, just a few weeks later, she gave an irregular €15,000 contract to her new boyfriend, former footballer Daniel Bogdanovic.

The affair ended up before the Standards Commissioner, who issued a damning report finding Caruana abusing power to favour her boyfriend while trying to hide the breach of ethics and rules.

She was sacked again in December 2021 and did not contest the 2022 elections.

After her second dismissal, Caruana was paid €30,000 from state coffers as part of the privileged golden handshake reserved for members of government.

Caruana’s staggering number of government jobs is the second to be revealed by The Shift.

Last month, The Shift reported that Ryan Pace, a young and inexperienced lawyer who manages Robert Abela’s private legal office, is on 11 different government retainers. Robert Abela also appointed him Chair of the Malta Gaming Authority.

An investigation has been launched by the National Audit Office (NAO).