Bossino desperately seeking relevance over Bassadone deal, Govt says

The Gibraltar Government has called statements from the Opposition that the Chief Minister misled Parliament a “heinous untruth which should be withdrawn”.

The statement from the Government comes after a slew of exchanges over a deal to rent office space for civil servants in the Bassadone building on Queensway.

GSD MP Damon Bossino has said Chief Minister Fabian Picardo misled the public with his response to a question tabled in Parliament on the deal.

Mr Picardo had answered this question in Parliament: ‘How much has been paid by the Government in respect of the properties it is renting from the Bassadone Group in the dockyard area to date?’

“Mr Bossino was given the exact figure that he requested – ‘the Government has paid a total of £610,866.69 in rent to date in respect of the property rented from the Bassadone Group in the dockyard area’,” the Government said on Wednesday.

“Any attempt by the GSD to claim otherwise is in itself a very serious misleading of Parliament that should be immediately withdrawn.”

The GSD has pointed to Land Register documents which suggested the rent was much higher than £21,816.88 per month.

The Government has said Mr Bossino has misrepresented the fact that he was outside the Chamber at the time that the Chief Minister’s answer was given.

The statement added that the GSD is conflating the figures and has a conflict of interest as two members work at the law firm involved in the deal.

“Whilst I am doing, Mr Bossino is just criticising,” Mr Picardo said.

“Whilst I am investing in the best offices for our public servants and for the public that interact with them, Mr Bossino is trying to make the best deal done for rental of Government property into something somehow negative - despite the fact that he and his firm are the ones who have benefited from the negotiation of the contract for Bassadone.”

“Whilst I am concentrating on building new homes for our people, Mr Bossino is playing political games that do nothing for our people. I will keep doing and I look forward to hearing Mr Bossino's continuous pernicious narrative.”

“It will get him nowhere but further into the political gutter in which he wallows.”

“Finally, I trust that, contrary to their actions to date, in breach of Parliamentary rules, both Mr Bossino and his erstwhile leader, Mr Azopardi, will declare their conflicts of interests when they next deal with this matter in Parliament.”