There is little worse than a government not facing up to, but rather denying reality. Fabian Picardo, and his GSLP-Liberal Alliance, are in denial about the rocky road, mainly of their own making, now facing all of us in Gibraltar.
On the one hand, the dismal state of cash flow into public coffers, on the other the human impact of no deal at final Gibexit, and a similar, albeit alleviated, effect, even if a deal is reached; especially considering the shaky, not to say dire, state of public finances.
Mr. Picardo and his Ministers will soon realise spin will not get them out of the pickle Gibraltar faces. Only honesty will help to pull Gibraltar through, but that is a word not much used or put into practice by politicians.
GOVERNMENT BANKRUPTCY
On the former, government bankruptcy, no one has warned more than this blog. For years the message has been going out on this forum that we needed to take care not to overspend or overborrow to ensure the public purse could cover for any unforeseen event. Neither of the last two GSD and GSLP-Liberal Alliance governments has taken heed.
The published figures now speak for themselves. We are running a current account deficit of an admitted £51,000, 000, with Sir Joseph Bossano predicting it will rise to £91,000,000. It is clearly visible that revenues continue not to improve on any front, so deficits will likely continue into the future.
All officials who have been involved in this debt-crisis should be held accountable; and their luxury items and second, third and fourth homes confiscated and sold – this action might put a small dent in the debt.
How much would the sale of Picardo's Sotogrande property fetch? – Sotogrande – Property SOTOGRANDE. Perhaps, he has others – like in nearby Portugal.
Perhaps their shares in shell companies can be liquidated as well.
Christ's Warning to Gibraltarians about the Evil Agenda – how it relates to debt and what they can do about it – still applicable today as much as ever.
Many of those who choose this place do it for tax reasons.
It is the Euro port that acts as a hub for gambling companies who seek to open shop here and apply for a license.
The business area is booming and the main incentive for gambling companies to come here is given by the VAT incentive. Not paying VAT on advertising means a great deal for gambling giants who spend huge amounts every year on marketing.
Brevity was frightening for gambling companies but so far it failed to generate the dramatic negative effects that would determine them to leave Gibraltar.
Gibraltar caters to the wealthy and oppresses the not-so wealthy with debt-enslavement.
With a population of only 30,000 people, how could it EVER be paid back. It cannot, so bankruptcy and losing your homes is inevitable. Do the maths and see what each and every single Gibraltarian owes to the banksters. You are in debt-slavery. – Message from Christ to Gibraltar about God's Law petition
Exactly six years ago, the Gibraltar Chronicle carried the Opinion Piece that follows. It is frightening to see how accurate it is proving to be today.
The General and Clerical Association says the role of Government Ministers should be considered when assessing the projected £40 million overspend in the cost of running government this year.
GGCA President Wendy Cumming told GBC’s Viewpoint that Ministerial approval is required at every stage of civil service spending.
She said there are strict controls on spending in departments - estimates, monthly expenditure returns & supplementary funding. Ms Cumming said these controls involve the Financial Secretary, individual Ministers and Cabinet as a whole.
Ms Cumming said it is therefore unlikely that the significant overspend forecast by Minister for Financial Stability Sir Joe Bossano is the result of senior civil servants spending money without approval, adding there could be very serious consequences for any who did.
The minister with responsibility for financial stability, Sir Joe Bossano says Financial Officers in the public sector have a legal responsibility for controlling expenditure. He was responding to comments made by GGCA President Wendy Cumming on Viewpoint that if ministers okay expenditure, any over spending should be on them and not on civil-servants.
Sir Joe was speaking live to Ros Astengo on GBC News.
The Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, has reacted to the GSD’s recent statement on Public Finances:
“I note the latest GSD statement on the deficit. As Minister for Public Finances, I take full responsibility for the state of the Public Finances of Gibraltar. But I must remind the GSD that Mr Clinton and Azzopardi took the relevant decisions with me to spend the money that has resulted in the losses that we are experiencing.
The deficit arises from the payments we have made under the COVID fund, to pay the salaries of those who could not work the past two years, to the sectors, such as building companies, transport operators, taxis drivers and many others which depended on tourists who were not coming to Gibraltar, and in forgone revenue from some sectors like restaurants.
These are areas of spending which the GSD did not just support, they urged upon us every time someone or some sector asked for help.
It is also expenditure involving the GHA costs of additional staff, the Nightingale Hospital, new equipment and PPE, and free testing which is still incurring costs of testing.
It is in order to tame the deficit that arises from this spending agreed with the GSD that all areas of current spending are now, necessarily, under review.
The Government has therefore not lost control of spending, what we have done is ensured, with the support of Mr Clinton and Azopardi, who now seem to have forgotten the facts, is that we have paid monies out to people who were not working and also covered the additional costs of COVID in the GHA etc.
So I am perfectly happy to be the one to shoulder responsibility for the deficit, because the BUCK, literally, stops with me.
But the GSD need to remember that they stood shoulder to shoulder with me on the spending that has given rise to the deficit and they were happy to try to share the political limelight when it came to announcing that spending or to asking us to help different sectors.
They have to be as brave in now facing the need to tame the deficit that has arisen from their agreement to spend as we have, as they were in bravely agreeing we should take this path and calling for extra expenditure.
They should now not cowardly hide behind the deficit to try to gain a few votes of those who might not see the reality of the situation.
I am not going to cower in the face of these challenges. I am going to put things right.
I will therefore continue to do what I have done, with all my Ministerial team and in particular Mr Bossano, in addressing these issues and in consulting and working with Unions and the private sector in putting in place the right measures to ensure we strengthen our public finances and our economy in equal measure.
Additionally, it should be noted that these are issues which are affecting every economy in the world, including the post developed and largest economies in the world. It is foolish in the extreme to pretend to suggest that Gibraltar could have avoided such a situation as we increased spending and reduced our income by shutting down our economy.
In fact, I am surprised I have to remind Mr Clinton and Mr Azopardi of the words of Mr Feetham at the last Budget session of the House in 2021, when he said:
“… [A]nd, of course, no one on this side of the House, is saying that if they had been prudent with the people’s money over the last 10 years we could have avoided a £157m deficit, which is, of course, COVID related and no one could have predicted the pandemic…”
Additionally, I am surprised that Mr Clinton and Mr Azopardi should be preaching about how to tame the deficit whilst marching with the widely discredited Community Care Action Group to Convent Place, asking, in effect, that the Government should provide an additional charitable contribution to the Trustees of the Independent Charity Community Care, of an additional £5,000,000.00 a year.
That may, however, have more to do with Mr Joseph Capurro being a candidate for the GSD Executive than with any principle or with any desire to tame the deficit.
Unfortunately, the GSD under Mr Azopardi has become a real case of him and Mr Clinton wanting to jump on every bandwagon, run with the hares, hunt with the hounds and desperately try to do anything which might win them a vote by any means necessary in time for the next election, which Mr Clinton has predicted will be in three months’ time.
Anyone who is following the detail of this will see how ridiculous it is to see a purportedly mature political party behave in such a fashion, demonstrating, in doing so, that it is far from being an alternative government.”
In reply to the Chief Minister’s statement, the GSD says the Government have “failed at the first hurdle in setting an honest Budget”.
A statement from the GSD follows below:
The Chief Minister in his response to the GSD’s questions over the 2021/22 £ 40 million overspend has characteristically failed to address the serious questions raised and instead put up a smokescreen. The GSD were raising the issue that the Government have apparently overspent that amount of money in this year’s budget 2021/22 whereas the Chief Minister only talks about expenditure from the previous period thus avoiding the question.
Roy Clinton the GSD Shadow Minster for Public Finance stated the following:
“It is evident that the Chief Minister does not want to address the question as to how it is possible and who is responsible for the £40 million overspend reported by his own Minister for Financial Stability, Sir Joe Bossano.
The Chief Minister is unable or unwilling to explain how the 2021/22 Budget was so wrong. This Government’s irresponsibility will be ultimately borne by the taxpayer not by the Chief Minister.
It is time for our public finance to get back on track and the GSLP have failed at the first hurdle in setting an honest Budget.”
The Chief Minister says the projected overspend is a multi faceted problem that needs to be dealt with holistically and that it would be simplistic and disingenuous to suggest that all of it was unnecessary.
Fabian Picardo says the deficit is largely related to Covid, both in increased spending and reduced revenue.
Christine Vasquez first put to him the Opposition's claim that the estimates book had gone very wrong with the 2021-2022 budget way off mark.
