A young lawyer who earned over €100,000 in direct orders within a 12-month period, barely after having graduated, has decided to cancel her contract, Transport Minister Ian Borg said.

Adreana Zammit, who also happens to be the daughter of Borg’s former chief of staff and close advisor Jesmond Zammit, took the decision herself because she can be successful in the private sector, Borg said.

Questioned outside Parliament, Borg said Zammit was hired by a government agency without his or her father’s involvement.

He said it was not the government’s decision to cancel the contract and he had not been pressured by anyone. This was her decision after having experienced the scrutiny of working with the public sector, he said.

Zammit is understood to have been awarded the contract in October 2019, a few months before officially graduating as a lawyer.

In August 2020, she was awarded an additional direct order for a six-month “legal consultation agreement” for which she was paid an additional €43, 900.

This means that a year after graduating from university, the young lawyer raked in earnings of at least €108,542.

This is the second controversial contract the government has cancelled after it was exposed. Last month, Education Minister Justyne Caruana had to cancel a lucrative contract given to her intimate friend, former football player Daniel Bogdanovic.