Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1437264
3 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 15 DECEMBER 2021 NEWS KURT SANSONE DANIEL Bogdanovic was con- tracted in January last year by Education Minister Justyne Caruana to prepare a study for a reform of the National Sports School. The three-month assignment would earn Bogdanovic, a for- mer footballer, €15,000. It so happens that Bogdano- vic and Caruana are very close friends and it was she who sug- gested his name for the study. The contract was eventually cut short in March when Malta- Today revealed how Bogdanovic was awarded the direct order for a job he was unqualified for. But now, an investigation by Standards Commissioner George Hyzler has uncovered far more serious shortcomings, which may also have criminal implications. One of the most glaring find- ings in Hyzler's report, which was published yesterday by par- liament's ethics committee, is the fact that Bogdanovic had no, or very little input in the report that was submitted in draft for- mat when the contract was ter- minated. Hyzler says that email logs ob- tained from the Malta Informa- tion Technology Agency show that it was the minister's con- sultant, Dr Paul Debattista, who wrote the report for Bogdanovic. Minister copied in email exchanges In their testimony before Hy- zler, Debattista and Bogdanovic did their best to try and hide this fact. But it was evident that Bog- danovic had no knowledge of the contents of the report when quizzed about aspects from it by Hyzler. Despite saying he carried out the research for the report, Bog- danovic did not remember doc- uments written by Radtke, OF- STED and Lavallee, which were quoted in the report. Bogdanovic had also testified that he asked for Cyprus to be included along other countries in the terms of reference where they called for a comparative study with other countries. However, while Bogdanovic told Hyzler he mentioned Cyprus a few times in the report, the country was not even mentioned once. These are just two instances flagged by Hyzler that prompt- ed him to ask for the emails ex- changed between Debattista and Bogdanovic. "The evidence at hand includes no sign of Mr Bogdanovic's con- tribution apart from having sent out the questionnaires to stu- dents created by Debattista, sent requests for information to the head of the sports school on in- structions from Debattista," Hy- zler wrote. In most of the emails ex- changed between the minister's consultant and Bogdanovic, Justyne Caruana was in copy and so was constantly informed of what was happening. Ghost writing invoices, CV Debattista was undoubtedly the ghost writer of the report to which Bogdanovic put his name to and for which he was paid one instalment of €5,900. A second invoice sent out to the treasury by Debattista after the contract was terminated list- ed works that Bogdanovic did not do himself. This invoice was not paid. But Debattista's ghost writer status also extended to the pro- duction of the invoices Bogdano- vic had to issue for payment. Hyzler says Debattista lied to him when testifying that he asked Bogdanovic to send him an invoice for the amount of €5,000 plus VAT for the work done in January and February 2021. Email exchanges show that it was Debattista who prepared the invoice and sent it to Bogdano- vic to sign. Even before the report started being prepared, Debattista also wrote the CV for Bogdanovic. On 12 January 2021, Debattista sent an email with the subject line, 'Attached is the CV', to Daniel Bogdanovic. The attach- ment was a draft CV for Bog- danovic. This email to Bogdanovic was sent on the same day that Debattista wrote to the per- manent secretary in the edu- cation ministry, Frank Fabri, to inform him that an expert was identified for the sports school study. Hyzler noted that this email to the perm sec was sent when Debattista should have already analysed Bogdanovic's CV and based his decision on it. "It appears that instead of ask- ing Mr Bogdanovic for a CV as he testified, Dr Debattista wrote it up himself for him or at least helped him prepare it," Hyzler reported. 'I am old school' A copy of the draft report sup- posedly authored by Bogdanovic was handed to Hyzler by Fabri in PDF format. However, the file was a collection of scans rather than a soft copy document pre- pared on Word and saved as PDF. This raised Hyzler's eyebrows and when he queried about this, Debattista insisted that he was only handed a hard copy of the sports report, which he then scanned and forwarded to the perm sec. Bogdanovic's defence as to why he had no electronic copy of the report was that he is "old school". "I am old school. I prefer to, to see everything in front of me… I used to put everything on the laptop and transfer to USB. That is how I work, that is how I am… I put everything on the USB and then the USB, I printed everything," Bogdanovic replied. This did not convince Hyzler, who concluded that the testi- mony given to him by Debattis- ta and Fabri was intended to try and hide the fact that the report was not compiled by Bogdano- vic. Frank Fabri should not have signed contract Fabri, as the guardian of the public purse in the ministry, was also lambasted for signing on the Bogdanovic contract. "In my view, Frank Fabri's obligation was not to sign the contract, not to sign it and then make elaborate arguments to try and justify it," Hyzler said. From the testimony collected in the investigation, Hyzler said Bogdanovic acted like a messen- ger in the ministry doing photo- copies, helping out on prepara- tions for press conferences, and driving people around. "This jarred with his appointment to carry out a study for a reform of the National Sport School," Hy- zler said. On the intimate relationship between the minister and Bog- danovic, Hyzler said that irre- spective of what type of rela- tionship the pair had by their own admission they were long- time friends. "It is my view that this friend- ship between the minister and Mr Bogdanovic is enough to trigger ethical considerations based on the code of ethics… it is for this reason that the testimony of Minister Caruana and Mr Bogdanovic about their friendship is enough for this in- vestigation to proceed," Hyzler said. Preferential treatment Hyzler concluded that Carua- na breached ministerial ethics when she accorded "preferen- tial treatment" in the award of the lucrative contract to Bog- danovic. He also suggested that his findings be passed on to the po- lice for criminal investigation. It is now up to the MPs on the ethics committee to decide how to proceed on Hyzler's investi- gation. So far, Caruana remains a minister and yesterday Prime Minister Robert Abela insisted he will wait for the parliamen- tary committee to conclude its work before taking any action against his minister. The Opposition has called on Abela to "immediately" remove Caruana from her post. Bogdanovic showed no knowledge of the contents of a report he 'authored' Permanent secretary within the education ministry, Frank Fabri