TG Condemns Government Motion Attacking Audit Report as Unfair, Unnecessary and Vindictive

Today the Government put forward their motion attacking the competence and objectivity of the 2018/2019 audit report published in July. We believe this motion, and the manner in which it has been put forward by the Chief Minister, are an unfair, unnecessary and vindictive attack on an individual which has ramifications for all of Gibraltar. 

The Chief Minister has tried to justify his actions as a defence of Gibraltar’s reputation, as though our critics will watch the theatre of Parliament. 

In reality, Gibraltar will be judged, as it always has, by the strength of our public services, the transparency of our public finances, and the independence of our institutions. These are the very things now under attack by a Chief Minister choosing to hound a retired civil servant without due process. 

When Gibraltar was greylisted for example, it was certainly not because of a lack of speeches in Parliament, nor the words of individual civil servants. We were greylisted because our institutions had failed to meet the standards required of us by international bodies.

Rather than addressing the issues raised by the audit, the government has chosen to waste taxpayers money on legal advice, to solve a dispute that never needed to exist. 

Throughout his speech to parliament, the Chief Minister kept coming back to legal language. He referred to the report as a kangaroo court or a tribunal. But the government is not being judged as defendants in a court of law. The matters raised in the value for money report were solely about the government’s role as custodians of our public funds. A matter that should be left to auditors, not more lawyers. 

How can any future Principal Auditors, seeing what has been done to their predecessor, now carry out their duties with confidence? How can civil servants feel empowered to speak up when so many are already silenced by fear of reprisals?

As the debate continues, we will continue to hear out the government on the individual points it wishes to raise. But we urge them to stop wasting the public’s time and money on a matter that has already gone too far.

We urge all MPs, and especially ministers, to vote against this motion. Do not hamstring your own departments by making them worry about what happens to those that critique the system.

ENDS