May 07 - Picardo Continues To Muddy The Waters - GSD
The GSD has reacted to the statement issued by the Chief Minister earlier this afternoon on the filing of accounts by Government owned companies.
The party says: “What is staggering is Mr Picardo’s propensity for confusing issues and mudding the waters. It is the only way he can deal with genuine concerns about the way the Government is using Credit Finance Company Limited and, through it, hundreds of millions of pounds of savers’ money.”
The party says that, whilst the failure to comply with the filing of accounts “is not excusable under any circumstances and under any administration” the GSLP administration has been in office for nearly four years and the important distinction is that Credit Finance Company Limited has had £400 million of savers’ money invested in it which is being spent by that company. The opposition says that “all Mr Picardo has done in two years is to mislead Parliament or refuse to answer questions about how that money is being spent.”
The GSD then goes on to refer to press release 775-2013 of 1 November 2013 in which the Government said that “the Chief Minister made clear in July that Credit Finance Company Limited was making commercial, fully secured loans at arm’s length from Government” and adds that people now know that £355 million has in fact been paid to Gibraltar Investment (Holdings) Limited in order to fund the cash flow requirements of all Government owned companies.
The party says this situation prompts the following questions: Where is the arm’s length gone and where is the security? Once that money is spent on funding the cash flow requirements of Government owned companies, how is it to be repaid? Is there any agreement from the Government for the repayment of that money? If there is no such agreement, will Gibraltar Investment (Holdings) Limited be able to meet its debts as and/or will its current assets exceed its current liabilities?
These are all questions, says the GSD, that it would expect an auditor of Credit Finance Company Limited to be alive to and the fact that there are so many unanswered questions in respect of this company, with “such a huge investment of savers’ money,” makes compliance in respect of the auditing and filing of accounts “all the more necessary.”
A statement ended: “Surely even someone like Mr Picardo, who thinks curing the economy comes with a new cheque book being issued at the beginning of a financial year would understand that.”
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