‘She’s doing the work of two lawyers’: Finance minister defends Justyne’s €78,000 contract

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has defended the appointment of former Gozo minister Justyne Caruana as an adviser to the tax department, saying she was doing the pending work following two lawyers’ departure.

To justify the lack of a public call, he said Caruana was the ideal candidate. “She (Justyne) has vast experience in commercial, criminal and civil law and knows how the public service works,” Caruana told PN MP Graham Bencini in parliament.

He said she was assisting the tax department, headed by former Permanent Secretary Joseph Caruana, advising him on legislation, legal notices and other legal issues.

“She is filling the void left by the departure of two lawyers employed with the same department,” Caruana insisted.

Second contract while on four jobs

Further research by The Shift on Justyne Caruana’s latest government retainer shows that the €78,000-a-year contract given to Caruana last summer was not the first.

In fact, according to documents acquired by The Shift, Caruana was given a similar contract a year earlier.

Caruana was first placed on the finance ministry’s payroll in July 2023 on a one-year service contract.

She was then given a second contract, signed by Permanent Secretary Paul Zahra in July 2024, while the tax department was still seeking to recruit full-time lawyers to fill the required vacancies.

The Shift has already revealed that the former Gozo Minister, the only cabinet member sacked twice during the same legislature, is currently working four different government jobs, with a potential income of up to €180,000 a year—three times more than when she was serving in Robert Abela’s cabinet.

Apart from the latest €78,000 contract with the tax department, Caruana is also on the books of the Lands Authority (€3,000 a month), a consultant to Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela (€20,000 a year) and a senior legal officer at the Victims Support Agency on a €40,000 a year contract.

According to all these contracts, Justyne Caruana is expected to work 120 hours weekly for the government. She also finds time to see her private clients at her legal firm.

Caruana was asked to leave cabinet by Robert Abela in 2020 following revelations that her then-husband, Silvio Valletta (the Police Deputy Commissioner at the time), maintained close relations with businessman Yorgen Fenech, accused of the Caruana Galizia assassination.

Less than a year later, she was re-appointed as education minister. Again, she was sacked by Abela when it was discovered that one of the first things she did when re-joining cabinet was to give an irregular contract to her new boyfriend, footballer Daniel Bogdanovic.