Azopardi calls on Govt to provide him with embargoed Inquiry report ‘without delay’

Opposition Leader Keith Azopardi has called on the Gibraltar Government to provide him with an embargoed copy of the McGrail Inquiry report “without further delay”, accusing it of holding back the document until the last possible moment despite sharing it with others in advance.

The report by Sir Peter Openshaw was delivered to the Government on November 6.

On the same day, the Government said it would provide an embargoed copy to the Leader of the Opposition ahead of publication and repeated that commitment in a further press release on November 13.

The Government has since confirmed it had intended to publish the report at 3pm on Friday December 5, but postponed this to the week of December 15 because of emergency eye surgery undergone by the Chief Minister, Mr Picardo.

By that stage, the report had already been circulated on an embargoed basis to 34 individuals, the Royal Gibraltar Police and the Police Authority.

Copies had also been provided to the Gibraltar Chronicle and GBC on Wednesday, December 3, “to assist them to prepare media coverage upon publication.”

Despite this, the Opposition said the promised embargoed copy has still not been provided to the Leader of the Opposition.

The statement said the Government’s handling of the report “tells a stark story strongly suggestive of nervousness of the GSLP Government as to the Report’s findings.”

“The fact that the Government confirmed on Thursday that had it not been for Mr Picardo’s surgery they were intending to publish the Report the following day makes it obvious that they were holding back on providing me with the Report even though they had already provided it to the press,” Mr Azopardi said.

“This must have been designed to give me minimum time to consider the Report ahead of publication.”

“People will wonder why that is given that the Report was called upon to examine Mr Picardo’s own actions and that the Government have precisely postponed the publication because it says it would be ‘… inappropriate and unfair that the Report should be published at a time that the Chief Minister is unable to address the Report and participate in the foreseeable public debate about its content.’”

“This suggests a deep nervousness as to providing me with time to consider the Report ahead of publication and a desire to minimise that for political reasons.”

“People will inevitably draw their own conclusions as to why that would be.”

“The promised copy should now be provided immediately or the GSLP Government will simply be compounding how this looks to the public.”

GOVT RESPONDS

Last night, the Government rejected the GSD’s complaints of delay, adding Mr Azopardi was not in the same position as others who had already received it.

In a statement, the Government suggested “some misunderstanding” on Mr Azopardi’s part about the arrangements for advance access to the document.

It said that by agreement with the Chairman of the Inquiry, advance copies had been provided to certain individuals and “elements of the press”, but that Mr Azopardi “does not even feature in that agreement”.

The Government said it had, however, agreed to give him an advance copy of the Report in line with practice in the United Kingdom, where inquiry reports are provided to Parliament with less than 24 hours’ notice.

It added that in Gibraltar, the Opposition leader would have at least 24 hours with the document before it is made public, even though the Report will not be published by being laid in Parliament.

That means the Leader of the Opposition “has no legitimate or other right to expect an advance copy”, although the Government said it would still provide him with one ahead of publication.

The Government added that because publication of the Report has been delayed, the provision of an advance copy to Mr Azopardi would also be delayed.

“It is nonetheless increasingly clear that Mr Azopardi sees the Report, despite not yet having had sight of it, as no more than another political weapon to use against the Government and wants to get his hands on it only for that purpose, which is not the objective of the taxpayer having spent in excess of £8m in the process of the Inquiry,” the Government said in the statement.