The GSD have issued a statement accusing the Government of delaying the 2018/19 Principal Auditor’s report.

A statement from the GSD follows below:

It is clear once again that the GSLP/Lib Government is delaying the presentation of the latest 2018/19 Principal  Auditor’s report. The circumstances that give rise to this conclusion are nothing short of a scandalous abuse of power  and an obstruction of the constitutional work of the Principal Auditor as well as public access to it. 

The Principal Auditor has confirmed to the Opposition in writing today that his predecessor concluded his report on  31 May 2025 and delivered this to the Clerk of Parliament on 13 June 2025 addressed to the Speaker so that this could  be laid in Parliament. The first available moment to do so was 23 June 2025 when the Parliament next met. Nearly  three weeks after delivery the Report has not been laid in Parliament and a copy has not been provided to the  Opposition. This seems clearly intended to delay and obstruct accountability at precisely the time that our Parliament  is debating Gibraltar’s finances and the state of the nation. What is it that the Government want to hide? 

What makes matters worse is that the Chief Minister answered a question from Roy Clinton on the delays of the  Principal Auditor reports as recent as last week in Parliament. Additionally, in answer to a precise question from the  Leader of the Opposition last week the Chief Minister was unwilling to confirm whether he had received a copy of the  Report.  

After that question and answer session was over the GSD received credible informal information that the Principal  Auditor’s report had actually been delivered to Parliament. On Thursday 26 June 2025 the Leader of the Opposition  wrote to the Speaker asking her to investigate this (in light of the information received) and confirm whether the  Report had been received and asking that it be tabled in Parliament. Mr Azopardi pointed out that the standing orders  of Parliament provide that the Principal Auditor's Report can be tabled by the Clerk. No reply has been received from  the Speaker. 

The practice from the passage of the new Constitution in 2007 to 2014 had been that the Speaker laid the Report in  Parliament. After 2014 the Chief Minister has done so but standing orders also allow the Speaker to do so via the Clerk. 

On Monday 30 June 2025 in his Budget speech the Leader of the Opposition made clear that delays in the delivery of  the Principal Auditor’s reports are unacceptable when they are contrived by the Government to slow down scrutiny  and awareness of the independent audit. As Mr Azopardi said then “accountability delayed is accountability denied.”  S74 of the constitution makes clear that the Principal Auditor should not be subject to the exercise of control by any  person. That extends to his work that should not be obstructed by anyone. 

Today, Wednesday 2 July 2025, the Principal Auditor confirmed to the Opposition in writing that the 2018/19 Report  was actually delivered to Parliament almost 3 weeks ago on 13 June 2025. It is completely unacceptable that not only  has this not been laid in Parliament so far but that the Opposition has not had answers to its straight questions in  Parliament to the Chief Minister or to Parliament from the Speaker as to whether the report had been received.

Mr Azopardi said: “We now have clear written confirmation by the Principal Auditor of the information we had already  informally received from other sources. Other papers have been laid in Parliament over the last few days but this  Report has not. It is scandalous that the Government should be delaying the tabling of this Report. This can be the  only conclusion to be reached given that they refused to confirm they had it and we put to them last week that they  wanted to bury this till after the Budget debate.  

It is also disappointing that the Speaker has not replied to the Opposition following the request for confirmation of  last Thursday as to whether the Report had been received by Parliament. Plainly this was the case and the  Parliamentary Office’s silence on the matter up to the moment of issue of this press release raises concerns on an  important question like this.”