CM concludes opening intervention on audit motion in Parliament

Chief Minister Fabian Picardo concluded his marathon opening intervention on the audit motion in Parliament on Thursday, addressing concerns raised by the former Principal Auditor in his 2018/19 about payments made to police officers who left the force and transferred to other areas of the public service or retired.

The former auditor had expressed concern that he received no meaningful explanations for most of the transfers and that in some cases they may have been linked to the McGrail Inquiry. 

But Mr Picardo said allegations relating to whistleblowers had been investigated on behalf of the Royal Gibraltar Police by an independent investigator from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, and that this investigation had been reviewed by the UK National Crime Agency and “legally scrutinised” by a London King’s Counsel on behalf of the NCA. 

“And all three reached the same conclusion,” he told Parliament.  

“There was absolutely no criminal conduct, no prosecutable offence, no case to answer, let alone any case to bring.” 

After the former Principal Auditor raised concerns in his report, the matter was again reviewed by the RGP, which confirmed there was no new evidence “and that the evidential threshold for prosecution remains unmet”, Parliament was told. 

“That means it's not that there's no case to answer at the end of a prosecution case, it’s that there’s nothing for the prosecution to deal with because nothing has been done wrong,” the Chief Minister said. 

Mr Picardo said the Government had acted properly throughout “in a way that has stood up to scrutiny when investigated externally from the government and externally from Gibraltar”. 

He accused critics of “throwing mud just for the sake that it might stick”. 

“It's a tactic, and mud sticks,” he told Parliament. 

“And that's the game that some have been playing.” 

“But this Government, from the day that we were elected, have been entirely respectful of the rule of law, of ensuring that we've acted properly and ensuring that the law that we passed to protect whistleblowers is properly and entirely well administered.” 

Mr Picardo wrapped up his opening intervention on the audit motion by highlighting areas of the report that the Government accepted and was already acting on, and which will lead to “improvements in the public service”. 

He cited areas such as modernising “outdated standing orders and collection methods” that had contributed to housing rent arrears; codifying discretionary powers relating to housing allocations “although no previous Chief Minister has ever been criticised for it”; clarifying the use of existing powers in negotiated procurement in the public interest; overtime matters; and reforming Gibraltar’s “outdated” audit law, among other issues. 

“We recognise that external scrutiny of the Government, for as long as that scrutiny is accurate, fair, objective and impartial, is a very good thing,” Mr Picardo told Parliament. 

The Chief Minister also set out amendments to the original motion as tabled in Parliament, including one to make clear that only “relevant parts” of the report were being rejected, as opposed to the entire document. 

Given parts of the 2018/19 audit report that the Government rejects will remain on the parliamentary record, Mr Picardo said the amended motion would also call on the Government to lay “a counter report” to reflect its view formally in Parliament. 

Parliament has now adjourned to November 13 at 3.30pm, when the Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi, will speak to the motion.