Rosianne Cutajar puts Zammit Lewis back on the gravy train

Former Labour minister Edward Zammit Lewis has returned to the government payroll only months after stepping away from frontline politics and declining to contest May’s general election.

Equality and Civil Rights Minister Rosianne Cutajar confirmed to The Shift that Zammit Lewis was engaged “a few weeks ago” as a part-time consultant to her ministry.

“I confirm that Edward Zammit Lewis was engaged a few weeks ago as a part-time consultant to the Ministry for Equality and Civil Rights,” Cutajar told The Shift.

She claimed the former minister brought “considerable legal expertise” and extensive political and government experience, including his previous stewardship of the equality portfolio.

Cutajar said Zammit Lewis had already contributed to several ministry initiatives and that she was “pleased” to have his support. She added that the engagement was made in accordance with the procedures and regulations governing public-service appointments.

The minister did not disclose how much Zammit Lewis is being paid, the number of hours he is contracted to work, the duration of his engagement or the procedure through which he was selected.

His return follows years of frustration at Prime Minister Robert Abela’s repeated refusal to reappoint him to the Cabinet.

Abela left Zammit Lewis out of his administration after the 2022 election, despite having retained him as justice minister until Parliament was dissolved a few weeks earlier.

In an interview last year, Zammit Lewis publicly declared that Abela had been wrong not to reappoint him, insisting he still had much to contribute.

In May, he announced that he would not contest the election and would instead focus on his legal profession, bringing an end to years in frontline Labour politics as part of the faction of disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

His absence from the ballot and fallout with Robert Abela has not, however, kept him away from a taxpayer-funded government role.

This is familiar territory for Zammit Lewis.

While serving as a government backbencher between 2017 and 2019, he or his legal firm obtained a series of public consultancies. Reporting and parliamentary disclosures identified engagements involving Identity Malta, the Lands Authority, the Ministry for Energy and Water Management, the National Development and Social Fund, the Malta Film Commission and the Malta Film Fund.

Zammit Lewis relinquished his consultancy roles when he returned to Cabinet in July 2019.

Abela later attempted to place him at the EU General Court, a post carrying a salary of around €300,000. His nomination was rejected in 2024 following scrutiny by the EU panel responsible for assessing judicial candidates.