December 02, 2022
HM Government of Gibraltar has today published a Bill to establish an independent Anti-Corruption Authority for Gibraltar.
This is the next step in this Government’s commitment to increasing public accountability and transparency in Gibraltar and to create a modern regulatory framework in all areas of public responsibility.
The Bill is divided into six Parts and a Schedule which not only creates the authority, but also sets out in detail the authority’s composition, duties, powers and functions, immunities and protections, conflict of interest provisions, confidentiality, its powers to issue guidance and cooperate with other domestic authorities.
The Minister for Justice, the Hon Samantha Sacramento MP, said: "Our Government has an excellent track record of working towards implementing reforms to deliver more transparency and provide even more robust anti-corruption structures in public life. I am pleased that now the administrative and legislative burden which our jurisdiction has been under for the past couple of years, due to the Global Pandemic and Brexit planning, has somewhat relented, this important commitment has been able to progress.”
The Chief Minister, the Hon Fabian Picardo KC MP, said: “This Government has embarked on a deep reform of standards in Public Life. The publication of this Bill is but the next step on this journey which already includes the milestones of the publication of the first Ministerial Code in our history and more openness to tender awards and to the Development & Planning Commission process. This Government will continue to lead on these issues and to deliver more transparency and more accountability than ever before. This is a Bill we have wanted to deliver for some time. We had initial commitments to publish and implement it in 2011 and were persuaded not go down this route. I am however convinced that this is an issue that has to be addressed and the best way to do that is to create a mechanism for reporting and investigation in a manner that will allow any properly founded allegations to be pursued and any ill-founded allegations to be properly discarded as such. I look forward to the debate in the Parliament on this Bill and hope that if the Opposition believe that the Bill can be improved that we will be able to work together on doing so in a constructive manner.”
ENDS