Jul 08 - Feetham Rejects Government Claims On Public Expenditure
The GSD says it is “delighted” by the fact that the Government is “paying such close attention” to its adverts in the Gibraltar Chronicle and recommending that the public watch out for them too.
Regarding the comments made about divisions between Sir Peter Caruana and the Leader of the Opposition, Daniel Feetham said: “It’s nonsensical wishful thinking as I will demonstrate during my speech to the Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. As indeed, another ‘Big Lie’ that Mr Picardo is now pursing is that the massive levels of public expenditure are really down to the GSD or inflation. I am surprised he can make those points and still keep a straight face”.
According to the Opposition, the “inescapable truth” of the Budget is that:
- The Chief Minister’s position on public finances at the last election, riddled by fundamental substantive and presentational contradictions as it was, has well and truly caught up with him and what we have described as the ‘Big Lie’ of the last election has well and truly unravelled. That not only creates an issue of trust for the Government but it also explains why the Government is going out of its way to keep significant public borrowing off-balance sheet through Credit Finance Company Limited. In other words, they promised so many things to so many people that it simply was not deliverable by conventional means – even by direct Government borrowing;
- There are very significant increases in recurrent expenditure with the latter outstripping increases in recurrent revenue in both percentage and monetary terms;
- Highest ever reliance on import duty and tobacco revenue;
- Overspend across the majority of Government departments to the tune of nearly £50m in the last year alone;
- Economic growth funded by Government borrowing and not inward investment;
- Highest net public debt in the history of Gibraltar in monetary terms at £353m;
- Substantial increases in gross debt to £450m;
A statement from the party continues: “What the Budget does not show, but which is highly relevant to any consideration of our public finances, is the opaque investment of £400 m by the Gibraltar Savings Bank in Credit Finance Company Limited, over £73 m of which has already been spent on expenditure that is properly the Government’s. There is no doubt about it. It is off-balance sheet borrowing by the Government and the single most important assault on the transparency of public finances and the ability of Parliament to scrutinize them, which we have ever seen in politics. If that money is spent (as the Government fully intends to do) it would create a gross debt for Gibraltar on today’s figures of £850m.”
