“The report’s author was Bogdanovic,” Education Minister Justyne Caruana testified. She knew full well it wasn’t.
The country knew for months that Caruana abusively awarded her ‘close friend’ Danijel Bogdanovic a €5,000 monthly direct contract. What the country didn’t know was the depth to which she would stoop to conceal her wrongdoing.
Caruana dragged her permanent secretary, Frank Fabri, her consultant, Paul Debattista, her friend, Bogdanovic and herself into a web of lies and deceit from which there is only one way out. In a normal country they would be facing criminal prosecution.
The standards commissioner’s report relates a depressing tale of a minister out of control, whose emotions sealed her fate. It is a tale of senior civil servants pandering to her whims, bringing about their minister’s and their own downfall.
Caruana was reappointed minister on November 23, 2020. Within a fortnight, Bogdanovic, an employee on the Community Work Scheme for the unemployed, was transferred from the Gozo Ministry to Caruana’s private secretariat.
The permanent secretary at the Gozo Ministry found out Bogdanovic was no longer reporting for work at his ministry. He spoke directly to Frank Fabri, the education permanent secretary to formalise the transfer.
By December 4, 2020, Bogdanovic had a government e-mail account as secretariat officer with the Education Ministry. By December 10, the chief information officer at the ministry was asked to provide Bogdanovic with a laptop.
Just five days later, the Education Ministry asked for approval from the Direct Orders Office for Bogdanovic to be given a direct order to “provide services on school maintenance projects”.
The direct order was for 12 months, working 30 hours per week, earning €19,500. It was approved just one week later.
On December 29, Debattista, the minister’s consultant, wrote to the prime minister’s secretariat head: “Following your approval of Danijel Bogdanovic from your end on December 2, we would like to have him as customer care on Scale 6.”
Scale 6 is the highest possible salary scale for ministerial secretariat employees. OPM gave approval that same day.
The standards commissioner’s report relates a depressing tale of a minister out of control, whose emotions sealed her fate- Kevin Cassar
The 30 hours per week commitment was not to Bogdanovic’s liking. On January 15, 2021, the approval for his €19,500 direct order was withdrawn. That same day, the Ministry for Education requested approval for another direct order for Bogdanovic, with far better conditions.
The direct order was for a study on Skolasport. There was no fixed time commitment and it was worth €5,000 per month. It was approved that same day.
MaltaToday smelt a rat. They reported that Bogdanovic was a member of Caruana’s secretariat.
The ministry vehemently denied the report. But Bogdanovic worked at the secretariat.
He had a secretariat e-mail address, a laptop, a ministry business card and his security tag.
He drove a ministry car, sometimes parking it outside his personal garage. John Camilleri, the head of the customer care unit, confirmed to the standards commissioner that Bogdanovic worked there since the Gozo office opened in January.
Caruana’s shady direct contract for her ‘friend’ was soon exposed.
The minister scrambled to cover up her wrongdoing and dragged her loyal servants and Bogdanovic into the plot.
Things unravelled fast. Fabri falsely claimed that Bogdanovic was “assisting in monitoring maintenance works at state schools” but refused to divulge Bogdanovic’s superior.
Camilleri, however, revealed that Bogdanovic worked at the customer care unit “helping us with photocopying, taking temperatures of people coming in...”
Bogdanovic confirmed it: “I help with photocopying, drive people to meetings, carry things for press conferences, things like that”.
When Fabri was challenged, he did not insist on his earlier version. He denied knowledge of Bogdanovic’s business card and security tag. The commissioner condemned Fabri:
“His evidence is not credible”. When Fabri was asked who chose Bogdanovic, he replied: “Understand, I don’t feel comfortable answering for the minister. I prefer the minister answer herself”.
Debattista’s testimony was worse. He falsely claimed that the study on Skolasport was necessitated by complaints received by customer care whose head denied receiving any such complaints.
The eligibility criteria for the direct order were drawn up before Bogdanovic’s name cropped up, Debattista testified. This was not the case. The eligibility criteria were tailor made for Bogdanovic.
He claimed that Bogdanovic received no help writing the report. But Debattista had written it himself.
He claimed Bogdanovic sent him a hard copy via unnamed Gozitans. He claimed he asked Bogdanovic to send him invoices.
Instead, he drew up the invoices himself and sent them to Bogdanovic to print, sign and return.
He approved €5,900 and a further €9,400 in payments for Bogdanovic for work he knew he hadn’t done.
Bogdanovic claimed he conducted the research and wrote the report himself. “Did somebody help you,” the commissioner asked. “No, absolutely not,” he lied.
Yet, he was clueless about the report’s contents. He did not know what the report recommendations were.
He knew nothing about documents such as OFSTED, Radtke and Lavalee the report referred to. He couldn’t name the software used to produce the report’s front page.
He gave hilarious excuses:
“I don’t have a good memory”, “I’m old school”. He initially claimed he didn’t have an electronic copy of the report.
Then he claimed he had a copy on a USB. When he eventually handed the USB to the commissioner, all electronic information on its authorship had been deleted.
The minister falsely claimed that Bogdanovic was recommended by experts in the field but couldn’t name any such experts.
She insisted “the report’s author is Bogdanovic”. Yet, she was copied in all the e-mails between Debattista and Bogdanovic indicating that Debattista had done all the work.
The commissioner concluded that all this was done with “the knowledge and the blessing of the minister”.
The minister not only abused her power but frantically attempted to deceive the commissioner, perjuring herself in the process. So did her permanent secretary, her consultant and her ‘friend’.
No wonder the commissioner is recommending referral to the police commissioner.
Meanwhile, Robert Abela waits.