Govt and Opposition clash over financial scrutiny and accountability

The Gibraltar Government and the GSD clashed on Wednesday over parliamentary scrutiny and financial accountability following publication of the Principal Auditor’s reports for the 2016/17 and 2017/18 financial years.

The reports were tabled in Parliament last week, years after they would normally have been made public.

Earlier this week, the GSD’s Roy Clinton said the Principal Auditor’s delayed reports underscored the need for a Public Accounts Committee, something the GSD has championed for some years and which the report also called for.

And yesterday, the Opposition again hit out at the Government, accusing it of “systematically” blocking financial accountability by delaying votes on supplementary appropriation bills in Parliament.

Without those Bills, the Principal Auditor was unable to complete the reports.

“By subsequently not taking the [relevant Supplementary Appropriation] Bills in Parliament until July 2021 the Government blocked and delayed financial accountability by years,” the GSD said.

But the Government said it would not support calls for Public Accounts Committee, which it said would subject civil servants to scrutiny that should be aimed at the ministers responsible for budgets.

It said Mr Clinton was “piggybacking” on the report to “wax lyrical” about the Public Accounts Committee to satisfy “his own craving for numbers to crunch”.

“The good governance of Gibraltar and its Parliament, however, should not bow to one man’s desire for a hobby,” No.6 said.

No.6 Convent Place said the accounts presented in the Principal Auditor’s report were already public and freely available in the Estimates’ Book published every year in the Budget debate, had been debated at length in Parliament.

“The GSD conveniently omit this from their criticism.”

The Government said it agreed with views expressed in the Canepa Commission on Democratic and Parliamentary Reform, which explicitly recommended that Gibraltar should not have such a committee.

It said too that the GSLP/Liberals policy decision not to have a Public Accounts Committee was put to voters at the last general election and was endorsed by a majority.

It added that the Principal Auditor's remit was not based on any parliamentary experience, and that those with most parliamentary experience took a consistent view that a Public Accounts Committee would not be good for Gibraltar.

“It is the firm policy of this Government that it should be held accountable to the electorate for the mandate provided to it at the ballot box,” No.6 said.

“This is why civil and public servants should not be subject to public cross examination on spending, when those things are the responsibility of ministers to answer for.”

Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said the Government would continue to follow the advice of the parliamentary experts on matters of parliamentary reform.

“Government Ministers will remain accountable to the electorate via the Parliament for spending in the areas of their responsibility and will not expose civil or public servants to public cross-examination by Mr Clinton or anyone else,” he said.

“The GSD’s piggybacking on the publication of the Principal Auditor’s report is nothing more than Roy Clinton indulging his personal interest in numbers and big books.”

“His obsession means that he should know better than anyone else that these numbers have already been published in the Government’s Book of Estimates and debated at the relevant Budget.”

“These numbers are not new and it is incredulous for the GSD to pretend that they are.”

“If anything, their sudden outcry over the numbers that they themselves describe as ancient only shows a failure of the Opposition in not highlighting these issues at the time.”

The issue of financial transparency and accountability in Parliament is not new and has been one of the key criticisms levelled by the GSD at the Government since the GSLP/Liberals were elected to office in 2012.

On Wednesday, the Opposition noted observations raised by the Principal Auditor in his 2016/17 and 2017/18 reports about legal obligations to pass accounts to him within nine months of the close of a financial year.

That then allows him to prepare his report on the accounts of the Government.

But the law provides that the Minister of Finance – currently the Chief Minister – can extend the time, which he did in respect of Bills tabled in Parliament for supplementary appropriation in both financial years in question.

Yesterday, a day after it again called for a Parliamentary Accounts Committee, the GSD pressed the government again over its “delaying tactics”.

By way of example, the Opposition said the Supplementary Appropriation Bill for 2016/17 was first published on January 12, 2018, and was not passed until three and a half years later in July 2021.

“This has resulted in massive delays to the work of the Principal Auditor and is the major reason why we are only getting to hear of eyebrow raising financial issues that occurred years ago now,” the GSD said.

The Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi, said: “The Government is again using this delaying tactic for subsequent financial years.”

“This is a misuse of its power and will again result in massive delay to financial accountability.”

“The Supplementary Appropriation Bills for the financial years 19/21 and 21/22 were initially published on 17 February 2022 and 18 May 2023 respectively.”

“They were, however, not proceeded with by the Government before the election and have had to be re-gazetted after the election on 30 November 2023.”

“People will think that it may have been convenient to the Government to delay all this till after the general election because it would bury any criticism by the Principal Auditor till after the election.”

“Further delays to the progress of these Bills will only hold back accountability in an unacceptable way.”

“It means that people will only get to hear the results of the audit years after the end of those financial years.”

The GSD called on the Government to ensure these Bills are taken at the next available Parliamentary opportunity.

“The misuse of this Parliamentary device hinders timely accountability and is wrong and unacceptable,” Mr Azopardi added.

“People deserve to have transparency, accountability and to have this without these massive lags of time.”

“Clearly the Government simply want to delay as much as possible because it doesn’t want certain things to surface quickly.”

“Accountability delayed is accountability denied.”

The GSD said this was “just one aspect of a catalogue of issues” arising from the Principal Auditor’s latest report, which was tabled in Parliament last week and runs to over 900 pages.

The Opposition said it would be drilling down into aspects of the report in the coming days.