HMGoG notes the GSD Opposition’s piggybacking on the Principal Auditor’s report 2017-2018, in a weak attempt to vindicate their flawed policies for which they have no democratic mandate.

When analysing the Principal Auditor’s report, it is important to remember that the accounts it presents are already public, and have been debated at length in Parliament. They are and have been freely available for anyone to examine in the Book of Estimates published by the Government every year. The GSD conveniently omit this from their criticism.

The Government agrees with the Principal Auditor's views on the overtime and promptly put an end to the malpractice as soon as it was brought to the Government’s attention some years back. The officer in question retired. The Government was not prepared to accept the continuation of this practice, enforced a ban on discretionary overtime and put in place strict measures to ensure that even mandatory emergency overtime is justified in detail and approved by senior management.

The Auditor's report, when it has come, vindicates the position the Government took at the time and the stricter controls that we have imposed on overtime to avoid any further abuse.

Mr Clinton has wasted no time in piggybacking on the report to wax lyrical about a Public Accounts Committee that he has wanted for almost a decade to satisfy his own craving for numbers to crunch. The good governance of Gibraltar and its Parliament, however, should not bow to one man’s desire for a hobby.

The Government agrees with the views of the Canepa Commission on Democratic and Parliamentary Reform, which explicitly recommends that Gibraltar should not have such a Committee. The policy position of this Government NOT to have a Public Accounts Committee was put to the electorate most recently in October 2023, when it was endorsed with a popular mandate. Additionally, whilst the Principal Auditor's remit is not based on any Parliamentary experience, those with most Parliamentary experience (with the exception of Mr Clinton) take a consistent view that a Public Accounts Committee would not be good for Gibraltar.

It is the firm policy of this Government that it should be held accountable to the electorate for the mandate provided to it at the ballot box. This is why Civil and Public Servants should not be subject to public cross examination on spending, when those things are the responsibility of Ministers to answer for.

The Chief Minister, the Hon Fabian Picardo KC MP, said: ‘The Government will continue to follow the advice of the Parliamentary experts on matters of Parliamentary reform. Government Ministers will remain accountable to the electorate via the Parliament for spending in the areas of their responsibility and will not expose Civil or Public Servants to public cross-examination by Mr Clinton or anyone else.

‘The GSD’s piggybacking on the publication of the Principal Auditor’s report is nothing more than Roy Clinton indulging his personal interest in numbers and big books. His obsession means that he should know better than anyone else that these numbers have already been published in the Government’s Book of Estimates and debated at the relevant Budget. These numbers are not new and it is incredulous for the GSD to pretend that they are. If anything, their sudden outcry over the numbers that they themselves describe as ancient only shows a failure of the Opposition in not highlighting these issues at the time.’

ENDS