Jun 24 - Chief Minister Says GSD Distorted Lloyd's Register Report
The Chief Minister this afternoon took the unusual step of interrupting the Budget Session of the Parliament in order to make an urgent announcement.
The Government says that it considered that the House and the Nation as a whole should immediately be made aware that this afternoon Lloyd's Register, one of the most reputable organisations in assessing industrial risk in shipping and, in particular, in the use of Liquefied Natural Gas in marine installations, has published a statement in relation to the report that was recently published by the GSD Chairman, Trevor Hammond, and Leader of the Opposition, Daniel Feetham.
The Government says that it is important to note that the statement has been drafted exclusively by Lloyd's Register, and not by the Government.
Number Six says it is evident and understandable that Lloyd’s Register are now disassociating themselves from what the Government sees as the party-political uses to which their Report has been put by the GSD. Furthermore, the Government says that it also appears that the published report has been edited down to 30 pages by the GSD, although the Government understands that the original report by Lloyd’s Register stood at around 200 pages.
The Government considers this to be a “clear picking and choosing of evidence” by the GSD and to constitute “an entirely unacceptable manipulation” of the facts and “distortion of the truth.”
On this basis alone, says the Government, the GSD version of the report is “completely and utterly discredited.”
A statement from the Government continued:
“Moreover, today’s statement confirms that the original unedited report produced by Lloyd’s Register was an evaluation study with a narrow scope, concentrating solely on two very specific sites (neither of which the Government is now considering) for single skin LNG storage tanks (which the Government is not considering), and concluded that some modifications to the very preliminary assumptions ‘could see major risks entirely reduced’.
“The Lloyd's Register Report did not address LNG bunkering or any proposals for an LNG-fuelled power station.
“The Government therefore considers that the statement exposes to the whole Community the totally irresponsible behaviour of Mr Feetham and the GSD in presenting their edited version of the Lloyd’s Report as anything other than a significantly edited-down version of a preliminary evaluation study.
“Mr Feetham’s deliberate misrepresentation of the Lloyd’s Register report is testament to his cavalier willingness to manipulate public opinion for his own political gain.
“Furthermore, the Government has established that the alleged £100,000 which Trevor Hammond told GBC was the cost of the Lloyd’s Register Report, was paid for not by the GSD but by the Spark Group of Companies in Gibraltar, a commercial entity which placed a bid for the tender for the new power station – thereby implicitly supporting the use of LNG in Gibraltar – and failed to win the tender. The Spark Group of Companies currently provides the temporary power generating facility at the North and South Moles. It is both significant and deeply concerning that the failures of the Spark generators have caused a number of unexpected power cuts in the weeks since the company appears to have commissioned the Lloyds Register Report.”
The Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, said: "As always, the Government takes the safety and security of the people of Gibraltar as its absolute priority. Whilst this is something that the Government would never put at risk, Mr Feetham's cynical manipulation of public concerns through a deliberate and calculated distortion of the facts is absolutely disgraceful and will not be accepted by the Community. The Government is considering and taking advice on what next steps are appropriate in light of Lloyd’s Register’s clear and responsible statement. But for Mr Feetham, the problem is that his cynical manipulation has been uncovered. He has been found out. He has been seen to be a total fraud even on something as important and emotive as the health, safety and security of our families. He won't be forgiven by those he has tried to scare half to death on the basis of the report given to him by a sore loser in a fair process of selection of the safest, most efficient and most non-polluting new power station and LNG facility for our community."
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