Updated: An earlier version of this story used a photo of Joe Muscat, whose identity was mistaken for Tony Muscat, the ex-CEO of HPMU mentioned in the article. The error is regretted.  

Melvin Theuma, the middleman in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder, got €4,800 from taxpayers for his phantom job that lasted four months, Lovin Malta can reveal.

Tony Muscat, who was then CEO of the government company which employed Theuma, is reportedly being questioned by the police today.

The government has so far been very cagey with information about Theuma’s job – going as far as to issue a statement claiming there were no records of the job only for these records to be later exposed by the press.

Sources have now told Lovin Malta that Theuma got €1,200 per month for the job he never showed up to between May and September when his contract was then terminated.

Theuma was allegedly offered the job by the Prime Minister’s then Chief of Staff Keith Schembri shortly after he confirmed with his boss Yorgen Fenech the price to hire Caruana Galizia’s killers.

Theuma’s job was listed as messenger/driver at the Housing Maintenance Embellishment Co Ltd, a government company that falls under the Family Ministry, then headed by now Police Minister Michael Farrugia, and is responsible for the maintenance and embellishment of housing estates.

It was set up in December 2016 and sources say it was used to hand out jobs in the run up to the June 2017 election. 

A spokeswoman for the Social Housing Parliamentary Secretariat refused to divulge any information about Theuma’s employment, claiming that there is “no room” for comments given the current police investigation.

However, sources in government confirmed his earnings and said he had a normal employment contract.

Theuma was given a Presidential Pardon by Joseph Muscat who remains Prime Minister despite calls to step down immediately so as not to compromise the investigation or prosecution.