The recruitment of a “junior lawyer” by Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg months before she obtained her warrant cannot be investigated, the Standards Commissioner said.

The commissioner had been requested to investigate by independent candidate Arnold Cassola after Times of Malta reported that the daughter of one of Borg’s top advisers was handed a €62,400 contract by direct order to serve as a junior lawyer, months before obtaining her warrant.

Jesmond Zammit’s daughter, Adreana Zammit, was awarded the contract on October 24, 2019. She graduated as a lawyer two months later.

She 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.

Following the publication of the article, Cassola filed a complaint with the commissioner and asked him to investigate.

But in his reply, Commissioner George Hyzler said the law precluded him from considering the complaint because it related to something that had taken place more than a year before the complaint was filed.

Commenting, Cassola said this was a veritable example of how parliamentarians create loopholes to ensure that justice is not enforced.

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