The GSD says the employment of former Deputy Governor Nick Pyle is “completely inappropriate while the  McGrail inquiry is pending”.

A statement from the GSD follows below:

The engagement by the Government of former Deputy Governor Nick Pyle is completely inappropriate while the  McGrail inquiry is pending. The Chief Minister has revealed he is being paid £80/hour or in other words a rate that  would amount to over £155,000 if he were to work full-time for a year. That would be on a higher scale than even the head of the Civil Service, the Chief Secretary, is paid. 

Mr Pyle was Acting Governor in 2020 and like the Chief Minister is one of the core participants in the circumstances  that led to the early retirement of the former Commissioner of Police, Mr McGrail. Extremely grave allegations have  been fielded in that case about misconduct and that raise issues about the independence of the police. Those issues  have yet to be considered or explored by the Inquiry Chairman. 

Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi, said: “For Mr Pyle to be given a job to advise on civil service training & reform  in the meantime is staggering. He is not a known expert on civil service training or reform. He is not a member of the  Gibraltar civil service. He is not an expert on Gibraltar public services or public sector administration. Why is he being  employed at all? This simply looks like the Chief Minister giving him a job to keep him sweet while difficult issues are  being looked at. Imagine the scandal in the United Kingdom if a serving Prime Minister gave a job to someone who,  together with him, was central to the facts of an Inquiry in which the Prime Minister was accused of wrongdoing before  that case had even been heard. It would be inconceivable and would receive public condemnation if it did happen. It  looks really bad. It appears from the answers Mr Picardo gave in Parliament that he is oblivious to those issues. He  apparently thinks anything goes, however it looks.”