Pressure is mounting on Education Minister Justyne Caruana to resign over a probe that flagged ethical misconduct.

But is the minister also the subject of a criminal investigation? 

Caruana has been in the eye of a storm ever since Standards Commissioner George Hyzler last week finished an investigation which concluded that she broke ethics when she awarded her close friend, Daniel Bogdanovic, a €15,000 contract for work he never actually did.  

The full report was published on Tuesday and you can read it here. 

What are the political repercussions?

So far, none.

Prime Minister Robert Abela has said he will not take any action against Caruana until parliament’s standards committee has assessed the report’s findings.  

Caruana with her ministry's permanent secretary, Frank Fabri. Photo: DOI

The bi-partisan committee can either adopt the report’s conclusions, or it can decide to dig deeper, calling in witnesses of its own before taking a final decision. This process could take weeks, if not months. 

If the committee concludes that the minister broke the rules, it can sanction her. 

A sanction could take the form of a public apology, a suspension from parliament or a written reprimand, among other things. 

Caruana has not made any public statements since The Sunday Times of Malta broke news of the report's findings into her and Bogdanovic. 

What about the criminal nature of the case?

The litmus test for whether or not a politician embroiled in scandal ought to resign has over the past few years been set - by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat - at whether or not that person is either being investigated criminally or by some other body, such as the Tax Department or Financial Crime Intelligence Unit (FCID).   

One of Hyzler's conclusions is that committee MPs should discuss whether or not to hand over the report to the police for a criminal investigation.  

The Hyzler report highlights the possibility of an investigation into a potential violation of articles 124 and 125 of Malta's criminal code. 

Those articles concern public officials taking a private interest in issuing orders or handing out contracts, and carry jail terms of up to six months for anyone convicted of breaching them. 

If the matter is investigated by the police, the case will be looked into here, at the police's Financial Crimes Investigation Department in Sta Venera.

However, Hyzler stopped short of handing over the matter to the police commissioner himself. Had he done so before finishing his report, then he would have had to stop his own investigation - the rules governing his office state that his probes must be paused if the police get involved.

The rules also allow for Hyzler to report the matter to the police after finishing his investigation.  Instead, however, it appears the standards commissioner passed that decision over to the parliamentary committee.  

Are the police investigating?

The police have a long-standing practice of not commenting officially on ongoing investigations, especially when these are of a political nature.

In fact, when faced with media questions about they are investigating politically exposed people, the police’s spokesperson generally cites a provision of the Police Act that essentially states “we are not in a position to confirm or deny such information.”

In this case, the police spokesperson gave a different reply.

Asked by Times of Malta whether the Hyzler report was being investigated the police said: “All allegations of a criminal nature are investigated by the police.” 

Mounting pressure

The Nationalist Party has taken this as an on-record confirmation that the police are looking into the matter. 

In a statement, the PN on Wednesday said that while the police had “confirmed” an investigation was happening, this ought to have started long ago.  

PN MP Jason Azzopardi went a step further and said the investigation would have to look into two other criminal offences not specifically spelled out by Hyzler. 

These are the crimes of embezzlement of public funds, which carries a prison sentence of between two and six years and comes with a ban from holding public office; and making a false oath, which carries a prison sentence of up two years.   

Azzopardi also referred to another article of the criminal code that concerns making false declarations to public authorities, which envisages another two-year maximum prison term and fine.  

It should be noted, however, that nowhere in the Hyzler report are any of these offences highlighted.