Former MP Justyne Caruana awarded new €78,000 government contract

Former minister and Labour MP Justyne Caruana has been granted yet another government consultancy contract, this time at a rate significantly higher than typical public sector remuneration.

According to the Government Gazette, Caruana’s latest agreement, which began in July 2025, is worth €78,000 excluding VAT for a one-year period.

The arrangement provides for a 30-hour working week, with payment set at €50 per hour. The contract, awarded under the Finance Ministry, has raised questions about both its value and its overlap with other government positions already held by the former Gozo minister.

This is the latest in a series of public sector engagements secured by Caruana since stepping down from Cabinet. In June 2023, she was awarded a €48,000 contract with the Lands Authority to provide legal consultancy services.

She also received another €78,000 per year from the Commissioner for Inland Revenue for a part-time position as his legal adviser.

Records also show she received a €10,000 direct order from the Water Services Corporation shortly after leaving office, also for legal consultancy work.

In addition, she has been serving as a Senior Legal Officer with the Victims Support Agency, a position worth €40,000 per year, and as legal adviser to Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela, in a role understood to carry an annual value of around €20,000 plus allowances.

Caruana’s previous ministerial career ended in disgrace, being forced to resign twice throughout her time as a member of Cabinet.

First, she failed to disclose her former husband’s close friendship with Yorgen Fenech, accused of commissioning the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Caruana was married to former deputy police commissioner Silvio Valletta.

While Cabinet was discussing the former deputy commissioner, Caruana did not inform her colleagues about his glaring conflict of interest, given that he was one of the key police officers in charge of the investigation into Fenech.

When she was given a second chance, she quickly blew it. Almost immediately after being re-appointed, she gave a €15,000 direct order to her boyfriend, footballer Daniel Bogdanović, to write a report on the National School of Sport. Someone else wrote it for him.

The Standards Commissioner later concluded that she had breached the ministerial code of ethics in making the appointment. The Commissioner concluded that not only did she breach ethics, but that her actions could “outright possibly constitute a crime”. That 89-page report about Caruana was damning.

She also received another €28,539 in termination benefits following her first resignation.