The GSD have issued a statement following a report on the accounts of the Gibraltar Port Authority for the financial year ended 31st March 2016 were tabled in Parliament this week. 

A statement from the GSD follows below:

The report of the Principal Auditor on the accounts of the Gibraltar Port Authority for the financial year ended  31 March 2016 were tabled in Parliament this week. The Principal Auditor in his certificate to Parliament has  stated by way of exception that ‘the Gibraltar Port Authority did not fully discharge its financial duties and obligations in accordance with the provisions of the Gibraltar Port Authority Act 2005’. This resulted in an  eventual loss of revenue of close to £1 million.  

Roy Clinton MP the GSD Shadow Minister for Public Finance stated the following:  

“The Principal Auditor’s certificate, which is dated 21 January 2021, includes a detailed report that indicates  that over three financial years from 2015 to 2018 the Gibraltar Port Authority under collected revenue by an  amount of £ 917,697. This was as a result of the discounting of rates on the Eastern Anchorage ‘without there  being any legal provision under the Port Rules to award such a discounted fee’.  

This loss of revenue, at which the Principal Auditor expresses grave concern, goes to the heart of the control  of public finances in two ways, firstly this should not have been possible if strict financial controls were in  place and secondly the late tabling of the Principal Auditor’s report for 31 March 2016 does not allow proper  Parliamentary oversight and scrutiny of such an important issue that is now old.  

I fear that this is just but one example of the malaise that has infected the management of Gibraltar’s public  finances since the GSLP/Liberals took office in 2011. We need to manage and control our public finances  better and this Government evidently does not consider it a priority to safe guard the public purse. “