Principal Auditor's report: Speaker rejected attempt to lay Savings Bank accounts in Parliament

The Principal Auditor ‘s report says the Speaker of Parliament denied a request Tony Sacramento made to lay the latest Savings Bank accounts in the House, in order to make these public. 

In his newly-published annual report, Mr Sacramento says he asked for this because of the “apparent unwillingness” of the Minister with responsibility for the bank, Sir Joe Bossano, to gazette the accounts.

There are two elements to this section of the recently-published Principal Auditor’s report, dealing with the annual Savings Bank accounts.

The first is what Tony Sacramento calls “a considerable delay” in recent years in publishing the accounts – which he ascribes to reluctance on the part of the Minister, Sir Joe Bossano.

The second part is Mr Sacramento’s own attempt to lay the accounts in Parliament – which saw an exchange on the Constitution between the then Auditor and the Speaker, Karen Ramagge.

The then Principal Auditor says despite being submitted on time, the Savings Bank accounts for the past six financial years have yet to be gazetted by the Minister.

He says he has published them in his own annual reports last year and now this year, but he also made an attempt last October to lay the most recently-submitted accounts in Parliament.

Over a series of exchanges with Karen Ramagge, the then Principal Auditor says he argued that he had the constitutional right to do this – emphasising his view that the Savings Bank figures are an “intrinsic and important” part of Gibraltar’s public accounts.

However, Tony Sacramento says, the Speaker responded that her interpretation of the Constitution and Parliamentary practice was that any reports by the Principal Auditor are presented to Parliament through the relevant Minister.

Mr Sacramento says, in his view, “the laying of the reports of the Principal Auditor in Parliament cannot be decided by the Government, not even by way of parliamentary procedure”, as this compromises the auditor’s independence.

He cited concerns that the tabling of these reports should not be “unnecessarily delayed or withheld” – saying this should be set by the Clerk, and should be at the next available sitting of Parliament.