His Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar notes the statement issued by the GSD this morning on the GHA audited accounts.

The Minister for Health and Care, the Hon Gemma Arias-Vasquez, tabled the GHA’s Audited Accounts on the first day of the first parliamentary session after receiving them on 3rd May 2025. That tabling occurred on 21st May 2025, at the earliest legitimate opportunity. There is nothing untoward or unusual about this timeline.

The Government is also grateful to the new Principal Auditor for formally correcting an error in paragraph 4.1.17 of the 2018-19 Audit Report, which wrongly claimed the accounts had not been tabled before the report was concluded. That claim was demonstrably false and has now been acknowledged as such by the new Principal Auditor.

Since Minister Arias-Vasquez has taken office, she has made sure that all of the accounts for the GHA are fully up to date. The accounts of the GHA up to Financial Year 2023/24 are all with the Principal Auditor for them to be audited.

As for why the former Principal Auditor took until November 2024 to certify the GHA’s 2014 and 2015 accounts, that is not a matter for the Government. The independence of the Auditor’s office must be respected, along with the responsibility that comes with it.

Minister Arias-Vasquez acted promptly and properly as soon as the audited accounts were received by the Ministry and has never delayed the tabling of any document in Parliament.

The Minister for Health and Care, the Hon Gemma Arias-Vasquez, said: “Since taking office, I have taken responsibility to ensure that all of the accounts of the GHA are fully up to date. I have also ensured that as soon as my office received the audited accounts on 3rd May 2025, they were tabled in Parliament at the first session thereafter. There was no delay.”