May 13 GSD call on Picardo to come clean on public finance Big Lie
The GSD Opposition has welcomed the announcement that refurbishment works at three housing estates, namely: Glacis, Laguna and Moorish Castle Estates is commencing. The GSD Opposition, however, notes that with the exception of the unfortunate plans to build extra floors, there is considerable overlap between what has been announced this week and what the Government announced last year in relation to these estates. “People want less photo opportunities, less spin and less electioneering by attacking the GSD Government’s record in office. Perhaps if they did that we would see more results," said a Spokesman.
The Opposition also welcomes the period of consultation with residents of each estate, which we hope will ensure that the end product is what tenants’ desire rather than what the Government thinks they would like. The consultative exercise before announcing the initiative should at least avoid last year’s embarrassing fiasco where, to great fanfare (including the use of architects’ plans and drawings as on this occasion), the Government announced it was to build extra floors on these estates, only to abandon the plans following widespread complaints from tenants.
This latest announcement, and others, however, illustrate that the GSLP-Liberals misled the people of Gibraltar as to the state of public finances and public debt at the last election and at the commencement of their term of office.
It will be recalled that at the time the Government made its announcement on these three estates last year, the total cost of the extra floors, together with the cladding of blocks, was estimated by the Government at £80 million and the announcement had come weeks after the Chief Minister had appeared on public television stating that his Government had found a “serious public debt problem”, a “serious public finance problem”, “an impenetrable curtain” and an £100 million black hole.
This evidently self-contradictory political discourse mirrored the arguments of the GSLP-Liberal at the General Election where they consistently argued there was a problem with public finances, whilst at the same time promising everything to everyone, including capital projects which would cost well over £600 million.
The Government has since, of course, gone on to expand the public service at an annual cost to the tax payer of over £10 million, initiated the Future Job Strategy at an annual cost of £12 million, started work on the Commonwealth Parade Car Park, the cost of which it has refused to reveal, and recently purchased the Queen’s Cinema at a cost of £3.5 million. Earlier this week they announced that tenders would be issued shortly for the construction of a new Power Station, the cost of which will run into the tens of millions of pounds.
This latest housing project by the Government’s own admission comes at a very significant cost to the taxpayer. The cladding alone, we believe, will cost in excess of £50 million!
Perhaps, the GSLP-Liberals will now admit that they misled the people of Gibraltar at the last election on the state of public finances. We certainly believe that we were right to describe it as the 'Big Lie'.
The GSD Opposition is also seeking clarification from the Government as to how the Government intends to pay for this and the other projects given that in the context of their so called carefully ‘costed’ manifesto, they said they would not increase net public debt and promised to gift Government surpluses to Community Care.
The Leader of the Opposition, Daniel Feetham, said: “Something has to inevitably give, in this equation. Either the Government intends to borrow or it will use Government surpluses to pay for these and other manifesto commitments. It might be more politically honest for Mr. Picardo to revise his plans either on the way these commitments will be paid for or the delivery of some of them. Further, whereas there is no direct correlation between economic growth and the payment of manifesto commitments, recent comments on growth projections indicate that the Government is not currently on course to achieve 50% economic growth, which obviously will not help”.
Finally, it appears that yet again the Government is more concerned with trashing the GSD’s record than with its own plans and we feel compelled to set the record straight in so far as the work which was done by GSD governments. These included, but were not limited to, successfully continuing with staged beautification programmes; completing the Varyl Begg Estate refurbishment; re-roofing and lifts installation (investing £6.3 million in this project alone); refurbishment of the playground and sheds at Laguna; addressing the parking problems at Laguna Estate; and the renewal of the lifts that now service all floors at the Glacis Tower Blocks.
