Aug 07 - Holliday Reacts To Auditor’s Report – Ex-Minister Seeks Explanation Of “Defamatory” Statements
The ex-GSD Government Minister Joe Holliday yesterday issued the following statement on the report prepared by the Principal Auditor:
“On the 18th July the Government published a Report said to have been prepared by the Principal Auditor entitled “A Review of the Payments made by the Government to the OEM Group of Companies and Haymills (Gibraltar) Limited” (“the Report”). The Report is not signed by the Principal Auditor or by anyone else.
“In the Report it was stated that I had a conflict of interest in relation to the award of the tender for the Buena Vista Development, because the tender was awarded to a party with links to the purchaser of my mother’s house at Mount Road. The clear insinuation of the Report was that there has thereby been some corruption or other impropriety. This is totally untrue.
“First, it is extraordinary and improper that such a report, making these serious allegations against me, should be written and published without anyone approaching me as part of the preparation of the Report to get my version of events or to give me an opportunity to comment. This represents a total failure of due process, fairness and propriety.
“Second, had due and fair process been followed in the preparation of the Report, it would have been evident to whoever wrote it that no conflict of interest, still less any impropriety occurred. On the contrary, there was scrupulous propriety.
“The true facts, which are obvious from the papers available both at No 6 Convent Place and at Land Property Services Ltd, and contrary to the Report, are as follows:
1. The tender for the Buena Vista Development was adjudicated in No.6 Convent Place, under the auspices of the then Chief Minister, and not by me.
2. The loans made to OEM to enable it to pay the builders of the affordable homes when OEM first got into difficulty were considered and approved in No.6 Convent Place, and not by me.
3. When my mother decided that she wished to sell her house, this required Government consent because it was held on a long lease from the Crown. Also the parties asked for Government’s “in principle” approval of the redevelopment of the site. Precisely because it involved members of my family, I did not carry out my role as Minister for Development, Planning and Lands in this case, and asked that all applications be submitted to and all decisions be made by No.6 Convent Place. This is what occurred.
4. Furthermore, contrary to the insinuations of impropriety in the Report, the Government allocated the Buena Vista tender to the highest bidder (by the very large margin of several millions of pounds).
5. The clear and intended insinuation of the report is that OEM was awarded the Buena Vista tender by me because they bought my mother’s house for more than it was worth. This amounts to a scurrilous and defamatory accusation of corruption. Quite apart from all the above, the valuation of the property was not £750,000 as stated in the Report. The written valuation of the property by Brian Francis of BFA Valuers for the bank valued the property, a villa with swimming pool in Mount Road, at £1.11 million as a single dwelling, and at £2.75 millions on a redevelopment basis. The property was sold by my family for £1.7 million. Accordingly it was neither sold nor bought for more than it was worth.
“In the light of the procedural deficiencies and grave factual inaccuracies on which the Report is based, I have written to the Principal Auditor, to whom authorship of the Report is attributed by the Government, seeking his explanation and clarification in respect of the defamatory and highly damaging statements about me and generally, given the improper manner in which I and my family have been treated."
