A sitting MP and a former parliamentary secretary, both of whom were part of Joseph Muscat’s Cabinet in the last legislature, have been awarded government direct orders with a combined value exceeding €150,000.

It transpires that former parliamentary secretary for planning Deborah Schembri has been engaged by a State entity she was politically responsible for, the Planning Authority, for the sum of €126,000.

The other direct order involves former tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis, who, unlike Dr Schembri, is still an MP.

Dr Zammit Lewis was engaged as a Lands Authority legal representative in court, for which he got paid €24,600.

Details on direct orders given by the Planning and the Lands authorities were divulged by Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg in a parliamentary question filed by Opposition MP Ryan Callus.

According to the data tabled in Parliament, between December 1, 2016, and the end of last month these two entities awarded 23 direct orders between them, whose combined value was of €769,351.

The highest expense was incurred for the provision of legal consultancy to the PA executive council and for “technical” aspects in connection to the implementation of the functions of the data protection officer within the same entity. Dr Schembri was chosen to render these services on August 11, for which she was paid €126,000.

Apart from this contract, Dr Schembri was engaged by another public entity which had also been set up under her watch – the Lands Authority. In this case she had been recruited without a call to provide legal services following the departure of the authority’s lawyers last summer.

The list tabled in Parliament made no reference to this appointment which happened a few weeks after she had failed to get re-elected in the June 3 general election.

However, an Infrastructure Ministry spokeswoman told the Times of Malta that “no payments have been issued to Dr Schembri” by the Lands Authority.

According to the ministry, the former junior minister had been engaged “on the basis that her service will be paid from the fees (taxes) established by the court as is common practice with all lawyers”.

Dr Schembri’s appointment had been criticised by Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi.

He accused the Lands Authority CEO of handpicking the former Cabinet member in order to “return the favour” for having been chosen for that post, as this entity had been established under her watch.

However, the former parliamentary secretary refuted such claims of a possible conflict of interest.

In the case of Dr Zammit Lewis, he was engaged without a call by the Lands Authority on December 1 of last year, against a payment of €24,600.

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