Chief Minister concludes motion on Principal Auditor's report with call for counter report

After nine days of addressing Parliament on his motion on the Principal Auditors report, the Chief Minister has concluded his address.

He also called for a counter report for the financial year 2018-2019.

This followed his final point on the motion which covered the issue of ex-Gratia payments to whistle blowers. 

The Chief Minister has spent nine working days in Parliament presenting his motion on the Principal Auditor's report - though it may feel longer, with sessions spanning across six weeks.

Thursday focused on putting the issue of whistle-blower payments to rest.

In his 2018–2019 report, the former Principal Auditor highlighted ex-gratia payments to retiring RGP officers.

The Chief Minister stressed these payments were properly and lawfully made, with several investigations supporting this.

He again noted such payments often represent better value for money than cases escalating to court, adding they were made irrespective of political affiliations.

It wasn’t all adversarial. The Chief Minister said the Government accepts parts of the report and is implementing them to improve the public service.

Some of the points taken include: 

- Outdated standing orders contributing to arrears

- Scope to clarify the codification of ministerial powers used by the Chief Minister

- Clarification of procurement processes within public sector contracts, with legislation addressing this published on Thursday.

The Chief Minister stressed the Chief Secretary was already addressing overtime issues in the public service when the report criticising this was published. However, the Principal Auditor’s recommendations on attendance and punctuality have been acknowledged, with plans to implement measures to address them.

Regarding the agreement with Gibraltar Industrial Cleaners, projected to save nearly £700,000, the Chief Minister said this deal was concluded before publication of the Principal Auditor’s report, which criticised overtime payments to GIC.

Fabian Picardo ended with an amendment to his motion. He said he’d moved away from rejecting the full report, instead proposing to amend the motion to reject only the areas he had highlighted over the course of his address. He also proposed a counter-report.

Parliament has now adjourned until 13 November at 3:30pm, when the Leader of the Opposition will respond to the motion on the Principal Auditor’s report.