GSLP/Liberals have ‘lost their way’ and are beyond saving, Azopardi says

The GSLP/Liberals have lost their way and “nothing will save them now”, Keith Azopardi, the Leader of the Opposition, said in a New Year message, adding the Gibraltar Government’s default setting was to operate “opaquely” and with “no real desire” to improve financial governance and accountability.

Mr Azopardi was speaking during a New Year message in which he underlined the GSD’s longstanding concerns about the GSLP/Liberals’ handling of public finances.

The GSLP/Liberals had plunged Gibraltar “into unprecedented debt, using a jungle of opaque companies, uncontrolled spending and directionless financial decisions devoid of value for money,” Mr Azopardi said.

“All that affects you and affects your families. It affects the money in your pocket and the services you enjoy.”

“So when you do not have wage rises it is because there’s not enough money or because of decisions which are of questionable value for money.”

Mr Azopardi pointed to “a catalogue of concerns on waste and abuse” highlighted by the Principal Auditor in historical audits to 2018 that were published last year after lengthy delays.

Those issues, he said, could only be resolved by “radical reform of financial governance, better accountability, controls and transparency".

“When those things are happening it is because the GSLP have lost their way and are at the point of no return,” Mr Azopardi said.

“Nothing will save them now. Whether [with] new ministers or new leaders.”

“Because they have had 14 years to show you something different and instead they default to the way they always do things, opaquely and with no real desire to address the major financial governance issues.”

“No amount of incessant photo opportunities will whitewash the fact that when the crunch comes all ministers rally around the excesses, the lack of transparency or the downright lies.”

Looking ahead to 2025, Mr Azopardi said he expected the McGrail Inquiry to be published this year, adding people would have been “rightly scandalised” by some of the evidence that emerged during the Inquiry hearings last year.

Some of that evidence “…pulled back a curtain on practices and conflicts that sounded so incredible that it was hard to comprehend.”

“It provided just a glimmer into the attitude of this Government. It caused many people to wonder whether it was the tip of the iceberg.”

“We imagine that 2025 will be the year when the Inquiry chairman will deliver his report.”

“We will comment further on the Inquiry, its conclusions and governance issues that arise beyond the scope of the Inquiry when that happens.”

Mr Azopardi noted that the Chief Minister had not mentioned the Inquiry in his own New Year message, adding: “We will continue to provide inconvenient truths that shine a light on this Government’s reality, to provide that robust, uncomfortable, critical Opposition Gibraltar needs.”

The Leader of the Opposition reiterated the GSD’s scepticism about the timeline for the new reclamation project announced last week, adding “the reality is that as we go into 2025 the GSLP are still building the houses they promised in 2015”.

And he voiced criticism too in respect of the Chief Minister’s promises on the treaty ahead of the last general election.

“The Chief Minister says he is now ‘really close’ to a Brexit deal,” Mr Azopardi said.

“It’s nine years after the Brexit referendum and four years after Britain concluded its own permanent agreement.”

“More importantly it’s 16 months from when ahead of the last general election Mr Picardo promised you he was only 0.01% away from a deal.”

“I think we all know now that this can only have been an electoral lie.”

“Let’s be clear. We aren’t complaining about the delay.”

“What we are saying is that in September 2023 Mr Picardo simply did not tell you the truth of how far away he was from a deal when he asked you to vote for him.”

“If a deal does emerge this year we will then assess whether it is safe and beneficial.”

“We are clear that if it is possible to achieve one it is in Gibraltar’s interests to have a safe and beneficial permanent treaty with the EU.”