Govt says it stopped ‘overtime malpractice’ highlighted by Principal Auditor

The Principal Auditor, Anthony Sacramento, raised serious concerns in 2020 about “completely unacceptable” overtime payments in the Department of the Environment that saw one manager earn nearly £1m over his basic pay in a period of 12 financial years.

Details of the departmental audit that highlighted the issue were published in Mr Sacramento’s latest report and caused a storm of criticism on social media this week.

In a letter to the Chief Executive of the department that year, Mr Sacramento said the officer in question earned £113,709 in overtime between November 2018 and October 2019, representing “a staggering” 196% of his basic salary in overtime, the report said.

“This officer, who was the top overtime earner in the entire civil service during the aforementioned 12-month period, was significantly higher than the overall second highest overtime earner in Government, who worked in another department, who had earned £73,362 in comparison,” Mr Sacramento said in an audit report tabled in Parliament.

A deeper examination of the department’s accounts for the preceding 12 years showed that the manager’s overtime payments – and those of two other managers in the department –were “exceedingly high”.

The audit found that while the officers were conditioned to work 37 hours a week, they were claiming between around 39 to 70 additional hours in overtime payments.

The Principal Auditor queried whether the “exorbitant amount” was justified and said overtime claim forms checked during the audit did not set out the reasons why it was necessary.

He said the situation was “…completely unacceptable in terms of work efficiency and particularly in light of Government’s drive to ensure efficiencies in the public service, not to mention the lack of control in public expenditure.”

Mr Sacramento told the Chief Executive that the department “…should evidently explore other operational arrangements in the section of the department where these officers worked, in order to reduce, or altogether stop, the apparent abuse in overtime working.”

He suggested changes to work schedules to ensure a 4.30pm cut-off, alongside payment of overtime on an ‘on-call’ basis if needed for emergency reasons.

He also urged the department to explore the possibility of contracting the services performed by these officers, adding that in his view this would “certainly” produce cost savings.

“In order to contain public expenditure, I recommended to the Chief Executive that whilst Government reviewed and considered the organisational arrangements in this section of the department, there could just be one manager and not two managers simultaneously undertaking after-hours’ duties as had been the practice for the last eight years,” he said in the report.

“Such a move would radically reduce overtime expenditure by half and enable savings of around £100,000 per annum.”

Mr Sacramento said he was aware that the Chief Executive and her predecessor had both raised “serious concerns” about the “inordinate level of overtime” earned by this management team.

“Nevertheless, for reasons unbeknown to me the situation had been allowed to continue uncontrolled,” he said.

While he had received some explanations on the issues raised, Mr Sacramento said he had not received a formal written response at the time that he finalised his report.

Last night, the Gibraltar Government said it agreed with the Principal Auditor’s assessment and had “…promptly put an end to the malpractice as soon as it was brought to the Government’s attention some years back”.

“The officer in question retired,” No.6 Convent Place said.

“The Government was not prepared to accept the continuation of this practice, enforced a ban on discretionary overtime and put in place strict measures to ensure that even mandatory emergency overtime is justified in detail and approved by senior management,” No.6 Convent Place said.

“The Auditor's report, when it has come, vindicates the position the Government took at the time and the stricter controls that we have imposed on overtime to avoid any further abuse.”