The GSD has said that the GSLP Government are “so disconnected from reality” that it cannot even understand the notion of conflicts of interest or the “abuse of constitutional institutions that it should be setting out to protect rather than undermine.”

A statement continued: “Mr Picardo was asked a direct question by GBC as to whether he would repeat the Principal Auditor farce by bringing a similar style Motion to Parliament on the McGrail Inquiry Report and he candidly admitted that the “possibility exists.” 

“His rather desperate distraction technique now to say that the GSD will also comment on the Report misses the point. What the GSD will not do is abuse Parliament or the constitutional independence of parliamentary officers (like the auditor) or judiciary (like the Tribunal Chairman) to bring Parliamentary Motions trashing them and their work. There is no hiding place here. That is what this GSLP Government has done with the Auditor and what it admits it may to do with the Inquiry Chairman. It is striking that in his further reply Mr Picardo has not withdrawn that statement. 

“It is also obvious that there is a massive difference between the GSD commenting as a political party on the outcome of an Inquiry report and for the core participants in that very Inquiry (for example Mr Picardo and his Government) who faced allegations of wrongdoing bringing a Motion criticising the Chairman or the report in Parliament. That would double-down on an abuse of Parliament and would be like Defendants in a Trial saying that in the event that they don’t like the verdict they will ask Parliament to declare that they can disregard the verdict. The problem with the GSLP Government is that they cannot, or even perhaps refuse, to see the conflicts of interests of their position. They aren’t bystanders. They are involved up to their necks in the process.” 

Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi said: “The role of Government is to secure the independence of the constitutional institutions not to abuse them. A Motion replicating the circus that the Government have orchestrated with the Principal Auditor, this time against the Inquiry Chairman, would be a further affront to democracy and abuse of Parliament. The GSLP now represent a threat to institutional independence and accountability and must go.”