Education Minister Justyne Caruana made a request to hand her partner, Daniel Bogdanovic, a €15,000 three-month contract through a direct order less than a month after being reinstated to Prime Minister Robert Abela’s Cabinet. 

On 16th December 2020, Caruana’s ministry sent the request to the Finance Ministry. Caruana was reappointed to Cabinet as Malta’s Education Minister on 21st November 2020. 

Caruana had been forced to resign as Gozo Minister in January 2020 just days into her tenure because of allegations facing her then-husband, Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta. Still, it was a lucrative period for her,  pocketing at least €60,000 in direct order consultancies.

Her reappointment to Cabinet raised eyebrows. 

“Justyne Caruana was reinstated because she is competent and she deserved it. Over the last few months it became clear that if there was any involvement of her husband, she was not part of it at all,” Abela told Lovin Malta on 25th November 2020. 

“I am informed that soon after her resignation as Gozo Minister, she separated from her husband. It is crystal clear she had no involvement so I had no problems with reinstating her.”

Weeks after Abela’s comments, Caruana handed out a contract that could now be subject to a criminal investigation.

Valletta had been named as a major leak in the Daphne Caruana Galizia investigation, which he was leading until he was forcibly removed by court order, by middleman Melvin Theuma and hitman Vince Muscat. 

These details included the arrest of the three men charged with carrying out the murder, Muscat’s potential pardon, information that Theuma’s and Yorgen Fenech’s phones were wiretapped, and that Cardona’s number was discovered on the phone of one of Daphne’s killers.

He also provided information to the hitman over Caruana Galizia’s whereabouts in the lead-up to her murder.

Valletta had an intimate relationship with Fenech, having dinner with him regularly and even going abroad with him on occasion. There even exists a video of Valletta “fooling around” in Fenech’s Rolls Royce.

At the very least Caruana, as Valletta’s wife, was aware of the relationship between her husband and Fenech, who was already known to be the owner of 17 Black.

Still, she was reinstated and now faces a criminal investigation after the Standards Commissioner concluded that she abused her power in handing Bogdanovic the contract.

Caruana had granted Bogdanovic, a former footballer, 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.

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.

Bogdanovic did not even author said recommendations, with the report actually being done by one of Caruana’s consultants, Paul Debattista.

Instead, Bogdanovic also served other roles in the ministry, which included technical work, photocopies, taking visitors temperature, among other things.

It remains to be seen whether Caruana will be forced to resign over the issue. 

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