Former permanent secretary Frank Fabri currently holds no position in the Education Ministry, according to Clifton Grima.

The education minister was replying to questions from Times of Malta during a recent news conference.

Fabri resigned as education ministry permanent secretary in January, a month after education minister Justyne Caruana left her role following an ethics probe by the standards commissioner.

In December, Standards Commissioner George Hyzler concluded that a €5,000-a-month contract Caruana had awarded to her friend, former Malta footballer Daniel Bogdanovic, had breached the code of ethics.

The report found that while Bogdanovic had been paid to review the National Sports School, he had not written the report himself and repeatedly lied about this under questioning.

The commissioner also said that there was a “concerted effort to hide Bogdanovic’s incompetence” and that the work had actually been carried out by Paul Debattista, one of Caruana’s consultants.

Fabri was indicted in the report because he signed off on the contract.

In his report, Hyzler said that Fabri declined to tell him whether it was the minister who had put forward Bogdanovic’s name to conduct the study into the sports school, even when asked multiple times. Hyzler recommended the report be handed over to the police over potential criminal violations.

Asked whether Fabri still held any roles within the Education Ministry, Grima replied that “at present, he does not”.

At the end of last year, Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar told Times of Malta that he was looking into whether any action should be taken against Fabri.

When asked if he had any insight into the review of Fabri’s conduct, Grima said it was not in his remit.

“This procedure is not carried out by the ministry but the public service in general, so the ministry is not involved in this investigation,” he said.