Unelected former Labour MP lands lucrative ITS job

Former Labour MP Katya De Giovanni, who failed to secure re-election in May, was appointed to a senior management role at the Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS) on a financial package estimated to exceed €71,000 annually, The Shift can reveal.

The appointment was made only months before the elections, when she was still an MP, and followed a public call for applications in which De Giovanni and one other candidate were understood to have been the only applicants.

De Giovanni, whose academic background is in psychology and who previously worked as a lecturer at the University of Malta, was selected for the position of Chief Operating Officer (Academia) following an interview conducted by government appointees.

The interviewers include former MTA official Edward Zammit and controversial ITS CEO Pierre Fenech, the same official who had issued an illegal consultancy contract to then Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar.

Her new contract, obtained by The Shift through a Freedom of Information request, shows that while the basic salary attached to the role is approximately €46,000, a raft of allowances, including for ‘responsibility’ and ‘disturbance’ boost her total package to around €6,000 per month, or more than €71,000 annually.

The appointment represents a substantial increase in earnings for De Giovanni, who previously declared income of around €60,000 from her University position.

The new role comes after years in which De Giovanni hit the headlines on several occasions, including when she filed a court case against the University for not promoting her to a professor.

An analysis of MPs’ 2024 income tax declarations published earlier this year by The Shift revealed that De Giovanni was the highest-earning Labour MP. Her declared income surpassed €110,000, placing her ahead of several Cabinet ministers and well above the earnings declared by Prime Minister Robert Abela.

Apart from her University job and her role as an MP, she also worked privately as a psychologist.

The figures reignited debate over the growing number of part-time MPs who combine parliamentary duties with academic, professional and consultancy work while earning more than the ministers responsible for running government departments.

In 2024, De Giovanni also came under scrutiny after being awarded an additional consultancy role within the Social Justice Ministry. The consultancy, worth around €10,000 annually, was added to her existing income streams from Parliament, academia and private practice.

Questions surrounding public appointments had surfaced earlier during De Giovanni’s tenure as chairperson of the Social Care Standards Authority – another government organisation.

In 2021, The Shift revealed that her father, Anthony De Giovanni – a staunch Labour Party militant from Fgura – had been recruited as a legal officer within the authority managed by his daughter.

The appointment drew criticism from employees and governance advocates who questioned whether proper standards had been observed when the daughter headed the authority and her then 74-year-old father was recruited by it.

More recently, De Giovanni’s name featured in reports concerning an investigation into the disposal of documents containing personal information.

In December 2024, authorities were reported to be examining an incident in which bags of rubbish left outside her residence in Żebbuġ allegedly contained documents carrying sensitive personal data, including constituent information and material linked to her professional work as a psychologist.

The outcome of the reported investigation was never made public.

Despite the controversies, De Giovanni remained a prominent figure within Labour’s parliamentary group and held several committee positions during her time in Parliament.

However, voters did not return her to the House of Representatives in the 2026 general elections.