Govt rental deal with Bassadone higher than Parliament was told, GSD says

The GSD has accused Chief Minister Fabian Picardo of misleading Parliament on the rental payments to be made as part of a deal to relocate several government departments to the Bassadone building at 80a Queensway.

Mr Picardo revealed the deal in response to GSD questions in Parliament recently and said the Government had signed a 21-year lease with the Bassadone Group for 3,618 square metres of office space at a cost of £21,816.88 per month.

The move will free up several Government-owned properties which have a “conservative” capital value of £10.2m and could “potentially” be put out to tender, the Chief Minister said at the time.

But the GSD, which had previously question the financial wisdom of the agreement, said Land Register documents suggested the rent was in fact much higher.

According to the GSD, on the last working day before the 2023 election was called the Government agreed to pay Bassadone Industrial World Limited £22m in rent over 21 years.

It noted that the Government had sold that same plot to the Bassadone Group for £7.5m two years earlier, adding: “This deal raises serious questions.”

“The lease reveals that the Government is in fact paying approximately in excess of £1m per year or £87,000 a month and not £22,000 as the Chief Minister told Parliament,” the Opposition said in a statement.

“This, in a 21-year lease which the Government has entered into, translates not to £5.5m as previously thought but to almost £22m in rent for the full term.”

“This calculation does not take account of increases in rent which the lease provides in its rent review provisions or the costs to the Government of converting the property into offices which the GSD expects will be substantial.”

The GSD accused the GSLP of “frantically” closing the 21-year deal ahead of a new government being sworn, adding this was “beneficial to its friends and benefactors”.

“In less than eight years Bassadone will have seen a return of its initial investment and had the benefit of former warehouses being converted into office space at taxpayer expense,” the GSD said.

“Far from this being a good deal for the tax-payer it is now clear it is a very bad deal for the public, compounded by serious misleading by the GSLP Government.”

GSD MP Damon Bossino added: “Before descending to personal insults what the Government should do is apologise to the public for not being straight with them and for leading them down another garden path like with so many other issues. Enough is enough.”

The Gibraltar Government has previously defended the agreement with Bassadone, which it says will provide modern office space for civil servants who work in old buildings that would be very costly to refurbish and maintain.

It described the GSD’s criticism as “shortsighted”, adding Mr Bossino criticised everyone the Government did business with.