Azopardi warns of ‘unchecked power’ and brands audit motion ‘a constitutional outrage’

The Government motion on the Principal Auditor’s 2018/19 report was “an assault on the Constitution” and a “shameless, self-serving trashing of a constitutional officer”, Keith Azopardi, the Leader of the Opposition, told Parliament on Thursday.

Mr Azopardi said the Government’s motion - which seeks to set aside parts of the audit report over claims of overreach, bias and inaccuracies, and table a counter report - was “unprecedented” and sought to “usurp” the Principal Auditor’s role, undermining Parliament and the Constitution from the safety of an in-built parliamentary majority.

“Unprecedented because of the nature of the assault on a constitutional officer, unprecedented because of the length, unprecedented because of the manipulation of the parliamentary calendar, so to stagger the debate in a way that can only have been self-serving,” he said.

He accused the Government of orchestrating a campaign against the former Principal Auditor over a report that had “rightly scandalised Gibraltar” not only due to examples of “waste and abuse”, but also for its contrast with the experiences of people "who were struggling to make ends meet” and who became “angered” by a Government that “doesn’t take care of the people’s money properly”.

Mr Azopardi said the Government had “played the man” in a way that was “dangerous to democracy”.

“They play the victim, but they are the aggressor,” he said.

FIRST OPPOSITION SALVO

The was the first opportunity the Opposition has had to speak on a motion that for nearly eight weeks has dominated the parliamentary calendar, but on which, after nine sessions, only Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has addressed so far.

The Leader of the Opposition did not hold back.

“This motion brought by the Chief Minister is, at its heart, unconstitutional,” Mr Azopardi said.

“All in all, it's a travesty.”

“This is a constitutional outrage that people need to understand affects them, because it affects the way this community is run, and it affects the decisions that are taken, it affects the accountability of the Government, and it affects the ability of anyone overseeing, supervising or controlling how the affairs of this community are run.”

“It is for all of us to protect those institutions, for all of us to ensure that the fundamental rights, that the checks and balances, are not only there but they are protected, and they are indeed improved,” he said.

“So rather than trash and erode those constitutional structures, they should be protected and strengthened.”

“Because if we don't do those things, we give the Government unbridled, unchecked power with your money, with your rights, with the decisions that affect you, and that does not work for anybody because we replace the absolute colonial power for a system that allows the executive to exercise unchecked power.”

“And with unchecked power, they can do whatever they want, whenever they want.”

Mr Azopardi said the Chief Minister had created a “smokescreen” while addressing, over nine parliamentary sessions, numerous detailed points on the report’s contents, accusing the former auditor of overstepping his remit and of political bias and factual inaccuracy.

It was “inviting us into the weeds” in an effort, Mr Azopardi said, to confuse and distract from the main point, which was the unconstitutional nature of the motion.

Mr Azopardi accused the Government of attempting to exert control over the Principal Auditor, who is an independent officer of Parliament under Gibraltar’s Constitution.

“It would be wrong, as a matter of constitutional principle, for this Parliament to pass a motion censuring the Principal Auditor in relation to his conduct – because that is a matter constitutionally only for the Specified Appointments Commission and for the Governor – or to censure the Principal Auditor for his report, which he is duty bound to lay [in Parliament], without any exercise of direction or control,” he said.

“And the motion seeks to do precisely that, not just to criticise parts of it, but to set aside parts as unconstitutional.”

“And it purports to exercise direction and control over the Principal Auditor when he is beyond our control.”

‘KANGAROO COURT’

“That would be fundamentally wrong, and that is why this is a constitutional outrage, impermissible under our laws, impermissible under our supreme Constitution.”

Mr Azopardi said the Government had turned Parliament into “a kangaroo court”, adding the motion read “like a charge sheet” against the former Principal Auditor.

He said the Government was using its inbuilt majority to “hijack” the Parliament and “weaponise [it] against the Principal Auditor in an unconstitutional way”.

“First they break down the system. Now they trash the players,” he told Parliament.

“The result is a dysfunctional system of accountability and a signal to others, a signal that we on this side of the House consider can only be deliberate, a signal that if you fall out of line and disagree with me, we fall on you like a ton of bricks.”

Mr Azopardi reiterated that the Principal Auditor “is a constitutional officer and an officer of this Parliament”.

“He is not subject to the direction or control of anyone, any person or any authority,” he said.

“Nobody here can subject the Principal Auditor to direction or control.”

He dismissed the Government’s justifications as “a methodology of systematic repetition” and said they were trying to “trash talk their way out of the serious spectre of waste, abuse and corruption”.

Mr Azopardi said: “They are so visceral in defending themselves because they show such little regard to Parliament, democracy and the Constitution.”

He urged the Government to “tone down the language” and rejected accusations that the former Principal Auditor was biased, calling that claim “nonsense”.

“They've been willing to deploy the most reckless of language on a Principal Auditor, a career civil servant,” he said.

Mr Azopardi noted the Government had publicly praised the former auditor just three months before the report’s publication.

“Either these statements were insincere at the time, or they turn on the guy because they just don't like what he says a few weeks later,” he said, describing the motion as “self-serving, politically partisan claptrap”.

He warned too of the broader implications of the Government’s approach.

“Who or what is next…if they’re prepared to do this?” he asked.

“What else?”

And he stressed the responsibility for the motion was borne by all Government ministers.

“No minister saves themselves” if they support the motion, he said.

“It will be a shameful indictment.”

Mr Azopardi said Parliament was not a court of law and described the Government’s approach to the motion as “a dry run for the Chief Minister’s return to litigation”.

Mr Azopardi said he would delve into the detail of “the weeds” later in his contribution but singled out a few examples, including the Government’s questioning of the Principal Auditor’s views on establishing a Public Accounts Committee, a politically controversial issue the Government said he should not have spoken about.

“Just because he has a view, it doesn't make him biased,” Mr Azopardi said.

“It's a view on an audit issue. It's a view on a parliamentary issue.”

“It's a view that can make his function work better.”

“It's not something that is worth condemning, censuring in a motion.”

“It’s a view, that's all it is. The Principal Auditor doesn't have the power to bring anything about. He makes recommendations, that’s all.”

‘BROKEN TRUST’

The Leader of the Opposition accused the Government of creating “an attempt at confusion, a smokescreen” to distract from “the festering swamp all around us”.

He questioned the Government’s explanations offered in response to many of the auditor’s findings, calling some of them “castles in the air”.

Mr Azopardi said the auditor had fulfilled his responsibilities and duty, rejecting accusations that he had overstepped his constitutional boundaries.

“The functions of the auditor are to do precisely what he has done, precisely what he has done, to audit, to control, to critically look at value for money, to assess, to recommend,” he said.

“And yes, he has to criticise when he sees something wrong.”

Mr Azopardi said trust had been eroded by the Government’s “waste and abuse, their opaque financial transactions, the political favouritism, the cronyism, the erosion of checks and balances, the intolerance to criticism or abuse of its power.”

“And trust is broken because of their shameless character assassination of the Principal Auditor,” he added.

To underline his point, he reeled off a list of descriptions of what he thought of the Chief Minister’s motion, including: “Ludicrous; utterly disreputable; designed to contain allegations but not explanations; shocking; improper insinuations; scariness; idle and unsubstantiated; misleading and unbalanced; risks defaming officials by alleging lack of propriety; democratically despicable; poisoned; jaundiced; an element of collusion; inhuman; improper and unbefitting; unforgivable; witch hunt; heinous; blatant discrimination; fundamental attack on our democracy; worst possible witch hunt to pursue those with an inclination to the left; attempt to mislead the House; a breakdown of trust; unconstitutional; hurts the fabric of our nation; and undermines the trust and faith in institutions.”

“The hyperbole was at such a level of hysteria that I struggled to think, and I have not been able to find, that any public officer in our history has ever been described in this Parliament by an elected member of this House in that way, let alone by a serving Chief Minister,” he said.

“What a disgrace.”

The motion was “a letdown” for public servants, he said, adding: “How dangerous it is for them to receive that subliminal message that if you turn and disagree with the Government, the Government will use all its weight and power.”

“We say that the issues are so clear and the outrage so plain that the right-thinking people of Gibraltar will reject the Government's efforts to masquerade and trash our constitutional protections.”

“And time will tell to prove that.”

The session was adjourned by prior agreement at 7.20pm to allow the Chief Minister to attend to another engagement.

Parliament resumes on Friday at 4.30pm.