Jan 27 - GSD Says Picardo “Lied To Parliament”
The GSD has said that Fabian Picardo "lied to Parliament" when he said that no indirect financial assistance had been provided by the Government to the owners of the Sunborn. The Opposition has also said that the Government’s response to the Leader of the Opposition’s New Year’s Message is “extraordinary” and betrays its “nervousness” on the issue of Credit Finance Company Limited.
The GSD says that the Government has “every reason to be nervous” arguing that over the last two years the Government has been reducing public debt by “simply transferring” that debt to the Gibraltar Savings Bank where it is technically a debt of the Bank despite all of it being guaranteed by the Government.
The GSD believes that the Government has then invested 344m of that money in a Government owned company, Credit Finance Company, “simply to use it to pay for its own commitments without Parliamentary scrutiny and in a way that circumvents the legal borrowing limits” designed to ensure that Governments do not borrow in a manner that becomes unaffordable for this community.
The GSD reminds the public that the Government transferred what it terms a “colossal” sum of money to Credit Finance Company without “any announcement whatsoever either in Parliament or at all.” The GSD regards this as “extraordinary” from what it describes as a Government that “delights in manifesto box ticking.”
A spokesperson continues: “Finally, there is no doubt that the Chief Minister Fabian Picardo lied to Parliament when he said no indirect financial assistance had been provided by the Government to the owners of the Sunborn when a Government owned company run by civil servants had done so. It is quite frankly politically dishonest to continue with this charade. We make that statement without hiding behind Parliamentary Privilege.”
