Government Disappointed By GSD Comments Over Management Of Public Contracts
Following GSD comments on public contracts, the Government has issued a statement highlighting that tenders are awarded by an independent board of civil servants, with tender notices and applicants also being published on-line.
A statement from the Government follows below:
As the Government has reiterated on many occasions, the level of transparency and supervision, which exists today, is without precedent in Gibraltar, certainly far deeper, and more widespread than ever before.
All Government tenders are awarded by an independent board of civil servants, which includes experts when the subject of tender requires technical or specialist expertise. Tender notices and applicants are published on-line and available to everyone.
Moreover, the Government would call in to question the GSD Opposition’s professionalism by accusing an individual who has not yet faced a fair trial and who has in fact entered a not guilty plea. To add insult to injury, the Opposition has taken this opportunity to try and unjustifiably knock the confidence of the people into how Government handles its public contracts.
This Government would like to make clear that not a single penny that went into the making of the schools has been wasted. The money invested in those schools means we have given the children of Gibraltar the most important opportunity to excel in life on an equal playing field in state of the art schools.
Most importantly, it is shocking that the Opposition should complain of a 10% increase to the original costs of schools, which is singlehandedly the biggest investment injection into Gibraltar’s education, when keeping to the budget was not something they did whilst in Government.
The Government would ask the Opposition to cast their minds back to contracts and tenders awarded during their time in Government. This Government has not spent £250,000 per public toilet, £10m on a massive hole in the ground or over £80m on an airport, which was said to cost £24m, as the GSD Government did.
