Ex Super One journalist Julia Farrugia put on state payroll TWICE OVER

Julia Farrugia

It has emerged from information given in parliament in reply to a question put by Opposition MP Kristy Debono that ex Super One journalist Julia Farrugia has been put on the state payroll twice over.

Immediately the Labour Party got into government, a job was created for her by Konrad Mizzi as communications coordinator at the newly-set-up Projects Malta.

The government’s web portal describes Projects Malta Ltd as “a Government company that works in Public Private Partnerships promoting and developing sustainable private/public sector joint venture initiatives. These ventures serve to improve Malta’s infrastructure, the quality of services being offered to citizens, and also to improve the value for money that a direct partnership with the private sector brings. Our prime goal will be geared towards the country’s growth and competiveness. Projects Malta will be the catalyst in coordinating the necessary work between Ministries and all stakeholders”.

The new information given in parliament yesterday is that Julia Farrugia, besides receiving a salary for the above position, has also been retained by the Ministry of Gozo at €900 a month, by direct order, to provide “media consultancy” to the shady, multi-property-owning Minister for Gozo, Anton Refalo.

A note to put things in context: Julia Farrugia is the daughter of Karmenu Farrugia, known as Il-Boton or Il-Botom, who was Karmenu (Il-Guy) Vella’s trusted driver and sidekick in the years when Vella – now European Commissioner – was a minister in Dom Mintoff’s and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici’s cabinets in the 1980s.

Il-Boton/m was one of those named in the police inquiry into the murder, during a drive-by shooting at a Nationalist Party club in late 1986, of Raymond Caruana. A fellow Labour thug called Ganni Psaila, known as Il-Pupa, recanted and turned state’s evidence, telling the police that the submachine gun which was used in the drive-by shooting was kept by Il-Boton/m in Minister Karmenu Vella’s official car, and that this car formed part of the convoy of vehicles which drove round part of the island that night shooting at different Nationalist Party clubs, including the one in which Caruana was killed.

Psaila later retracted his testimony, apparently under duress, and was later found dead at the bottom of a building shaft. Two police officers claimed that they had received a call about a burglary and had turned up and chased him across rooftops, whereupon he fell down the shaft.

Julia Farrugia was a child at the time and there is no suggestion that she has anything to do with any of this except for the fact that this is the household in which she grew up through no fault of her own – but the background is crucial to understanding the context in which she is favoured. It is not just that she worked for Super One, the Labour Party’s television station.