Daniel Bogdanovic is still allegedly employed at Justyne Caruana’s Education Ministry, weeks after a controversial contract given to the former international footballer at the same ministry was supposedly scrapped by the Prime Minister.

Net News claim that Bogdanovic is currently employed within the Educational Secretariat. 

In March, it was revealed that Education Minister Caruana had granted Bogdanovic, a close intimate friend of hers, a three-month contract worth €15,000 to visit government schools and draft recommendations on how to improve the national sports school’s ability to produce elite athletes. The Education Ministry had denied the claims just a month before.

Bogdanovic was an elite athlete in his own right, playing for the likes of Barnsley, Sheffield United and Blackpool in his prime. However, his contract with the Education Ministry raised eyebrows given his lack of pedagogical qualifications and his personal relationship with the Minister. 

Caruana was hospitalised soon after the initial reports, following claims of tensions within the ministry due to the revelations.

Prime Minister Robert Abela said he scrapped the controversial contact “as soon as [he] found out about it”. 

A request for the Standards Commissioner to open up an investigation was filed – and a final report should be completed in the coming months.

However, Net News claim that Caruana and Bogdanovic have been seen together in and around the ministerial building, working on the same floor. They have even accompanied one another to school visits. 

Net News claim that sources have insisted that Bogdanovic remains on the government payroll. 

Caruana was reinstated to the Cabinet in November 2020 following a reshuffle. She had returned after being ousted at the start of the year following her now-estranged husband’s links to the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

Caruana’s recently estranged husband, former Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta, has been implicated as a major leak in the investigation. He has been named as the source of information on crucial details like Caruana Galizia’s whereabouts in the lead-up to her murder and the imminent arrests of the three hitmen after the assassination. 

Media reports and court sittings have revealed that have had an intimate relationship with main suspect Yorgen Fenech. He held dinners with Fenech and went abroad with him on at least two occasions. Meanwhile, there exists a video of Valletta “fooling around” in Fenech’s Rolls Royce.

What do you think of the claim?