Jan 06 - Government Provides Further Clarification Of Tercentenary Hall Hire
The Government says it has already set out its position on the subject of the Christmas and New Year’s Eve events at the Tercentenary Sports Hall but feels it must again clarify its position given what it describes as “absurd” and “unsubstantiated remarks” made on last night’s Newswatch by a member of the GSD Executive.
The Government says that this “attempt to discredit Her Majesty’s Government, its Ministers and or its staff with unsubstantiated accusations of favouritism and dishonesty is utterly unacceptable.”
Number Six argues that the interview also represents an early failure by the GSD to keep to the Party leader’s pledge that debates in this election year would be clean and reputable. However, the Government says it does intend to keep to its promise and will respond to Ms Hassan Nahon’s false allegations “by laying out the facts.”
A statement released this evening continues:
“The cost of renting out the Tercentenary Sports Hall to Rock Royale for the New Year’s Eve event was £6994.38, a figure which included the hire of the Hall and the overtime pay for essential staff. This is in accordance with standard procedures for the renting out of Government premises to private companies: any private company approaching the Government wishing to hire the Tercentenary Sports Hall, or any other venue, would have been treated in exactly the same way.
“When renting out a Government venue to a private company, the identity of the owners of the company is not taken into account. Ms Hassan Nahon seems to believe that the hire of Government halls is usually done by tender but she is wrong. These halls have a fixed rental price and if an individual or business wishes to pay that price, other things being equal, they may rent it. The accusations made against the GSLP/Liberal Government of cronyism and enabling unfair competition are, therefore, not only unfounded and absurd, but represent the kind of gutter politics that the Party leaders pledged to avoid.
“Under the GSD, however, cronyism was almost way of life. It is ironic that the entity which complained about the New Year’s Eve party is precisely the same entity that benefited enormously from its close family links with a senior Minister in the previous administration, an arrangement that resulted in the Government being sued for over £250,000 for the abuse of power. Moreover, the irony is that they themselves have rented out Government venues in the past for private functions. The GSD Opposition’s hypocrisy is abundantly clear.
“On both occasions this holiday season the Tercentenary Sports Hall was rented out to a private company for private events. In the GBC interview Ms Hassan Nahon appeared uncertain as to whether the Chief Minister attended the function or not. In fact, the Chief Minister did not attend either event.
“The facts and figures speak for themselves, and should lay to rest this ill-informed and self-serving criticism.”
