The daughter of a senior government adviser who was awarded lucrative government contracts even before she graduated, has now resigned. 

Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg confirmed to Times of Malta that Adreana Zammit had quit. He said it was her own decision as she felt her work at the ministry was being unfairly targeted due to her father's political standing. 

Times of Malta revealed on Monday how Zammit, daughter of Jesmond Zammit, one of Borg’s top advisers was handed a €62,400 contract by direct order to serve as a junior lawyer with the ministry – months before obtaining her warrant.

She was awarded the lucrative contract on October 24, 2019, graduated as a lawyer two months later and only received her warrant in January, according to her own social media posts.

Zammit was then awarded an additional direct order in August last year for a “legal consultation agreement” that lasted six months and netted the junior lawyer another €46,142.

By the end of 2020, just one year after graduating, Zammit was paid at least €108,542 in direct orders for her legal services.

Minister denies involvement and praises lawyer

In comments to the media, the minister denied involvement in the lawyer's recruitment but praised her for her work. He also denied she was handed contracts before graduating.

According to the University of Malta website, the Faculty of Laws graduation ceremony for 2019 was held on November 19, weeks after Zammit received the €62,400 direct order.

He added that Transport Malta "did not wait for the minister" to decide which lawyers to engage.   

“After the media reports came out I was informed of the facts after making enquiries myself.  The person in question had been giving her service to the authority for a long time, and she is a very competent lawyer,” he said. 

“She always did her job and she earned her pay by doing work that needed to be done.”

The lawyer, he said, had never set foot in politics. He denied that contracts were awarded before she got her warrant.