Mar 14 - GSD Request Government Clarification on Chief Minister’s Presidential Dinner Invite
Regarding the Chief Minister and Dr. Cortes’ recent visit to Washington, where they attended a number of inaugural events for the newly re-elected President. The GSD notes that among these events, Mr. Picardo and Dr. Cortes, along with their respective spouses attended the Candlelight dinner, which is an evening held for those who supported the election campaign, as well as benefactors and donors.
The Party goes on to state that the benefactors and donors invited are all US citizens, as donations from foreign governments are not accepted. The Opposition is requesting that Government clarifies which company or individual invited Mr. Picardo and Dr. Cortes to the inaugural events, whether any donations were made by the individual or company that invited the Ministers and whether the Government of Gibraltar has any consultancy or other contracts with that individual or company?
An Opposition statement insisted that if it turns out that the Chief Minister’s participation at the Candlelight Dinner inauguration event and the photograph with President Obama was part of a donor’s package, it will lend itself to further scrutiny.
‘It is to be noted that in keeping with the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee’s commitment to transparency, the Committee posts the names of donors to the 57th Presidential Inauguration on the web and the names of benefactors is available at http://www.2013pic.org/about/benefactors. There can therefore be no question of this information being confidential.’
