The UK Government’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander will pay a visit to Gibraltar this week. Mr. Alexander, who’s responsibilities include public expenditure in the areas of capital investment and public sector pay and pensions, will hold meetings with Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and Deputy Chief Minister Dr. Joseph Garcia.
The GSD says that the Government’s latest statement on the power station is just another example of Mr Picardo’s “hypocrisy” and the “do as I say but not as I do” philosophy that it claims is epitomizing his tenure as Chief Minister.
In response to the GSD’s recent claim that the former administration also spent significant public funds on repairing GSLP built housing estates, the Government ha said that this claim is ‘totally incorrect’. Instead they note that ‘The repairs to Harbour Views did not cost the Government millions and millions of pounds. In this case, the contractor was taken to court, lost the case and it was the contractor, not the government, who had to pay for the repairs.’
The Government has described the Opposition’s criticism of the allocation process for the new affordable housing schemes as a “naked attempt” by Mr Feetham's party to “ride on the back of unsubstantiated rumours on social media” about alleged allocations, all of which, it stresses, “are untrue.”
The GSD says it has noted Mr Picardo’s comments in the press “decrying” the cost of remedial works to projects built during the GSD’s tenure in office. The party says that Mr Picardo “conveniently forgets” that it cost the GSD Government over £20 million to put right the poor workmanship in estates such as Westside 1, Westside 2 and Brympton to name but a few.
