Walter Finch
THE long-awaited Public Auditor’s report has finally landed – and its impact triggered an earthquake that has shaken the Rock to its core.
While nominally covering the shockingly out-of-date financial year of 2018-19, retired Public Auditor Tony Sacramento managed to crowbar in his findings on more recent government spending – and it paints a grim picture of how Gibraltar really operates.
Among a litany of highly questionable and dubious revelations, the report details how £11.08 million was dished out in generous ‘golden handshake’ payments between 2018 and 2024 to a coterie of individuals branded ‘vocal GSLP supporters’ by opposition figures.
A further £2.17m was paid out between April 2024 up to May 2025 – all outlays the PA called ‘excessive and in many cases unwarranted.’
Even more alarmingly, nearly half of those payouts ‘were authorised directly by the Chief Minister’s Office, accounting for over half the total value disbursed.’
Across the report’s 550 pages, there are numerous accounts of irregularities and improprieties — including the discovery that millions in public money were funnelled through government-owned companies, dodging parliamentary scrutiny and creating shadow budgets outside the official accounts.
Meanwhile, it was revealed that contracts were handed out without competition, payments made without paperwork, and public money funnelled into the hands of politically connected entities.
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Shadow Finance Minister Roy Clinton told the Olive Press that the pay-offs were ‘outrageous’ and called the government’s lack of cooperation with the auditor ‘an affront to Parliament.’
“We’ve seen a pattern over the years of major capital projects, or significant payments, being routed through these government-owned companies, which are not subject to the same level of oversight,” the former banker said.
“These are companies that are wholly owned by the government. Being subsidised to that extent without debate or estimates is unacceptable.”
“We don’t have a Public Accounts Committee because the government refuses to allow one – they don’t want scrutiny.”
“It’s government by announcement, not accountability.”
It all lays the groundwork for what critics describe as a textbook case of patronage politics more akin to the clientelist systems of Nigeria, Kenya – or even Putin’s Russia – than to modern, transparent parliamentary governance.
These countries are marked by state capture, opaque financial dealings, and the blurring of lines between serving the public interest and narrow political loyalty.
So damning was the report that the government pulled out every trick in the book to delay its release, only tabling the long-overdue audit after announcing its latest budget.
Rolled out to much fanfare on June 30, the 2025 Budget boasted of a 6.5% surge in economic growth, adding £180 million to the territory’s GDP and giving the Rock a GDP per capita of £88,107 – ‘among the highest in Europe’, in the words of the Chief Minister.
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So it begs the question of who is capturing all this new wealth – or perhaps more pointedly it points the finger at where it is all flowing.
Such impressive economic growth has also drawn comparisons with China, where political scientists recognise a form of corruption known as ‘access money’, which acts like steroids by stimulating investment and growth – but with long-term risks.
In public statements following the outcry, the government dismissed the report as ‘demonstrably biased and partial in many of its conclusions’ and laid out a series of defences for its actions.
It insisted that all ‘golden handshake’ payments were made ‘in good faith,’ often with the advice of the Attorney General, and based solely on the individual circumstances of each officer’s departure.
It categorically denied that any payments were linked to political favouritism, stressing that recipients were selected impartially and without regard to political affiliation.
Likewise, it defended the use of government-owned companies as a ‘lawful, long-established’ practice approved by Parliament and subject to audited accounts.
The ongoing furore may cause a modicum of trepidation in Gibraltar’s new Principal Auditor, Phil?Sharman, who took up the role on June 1.
He has undertaken to clear the backlog as soon as possible, with many calling for him to give an estimate for when it can be expected.
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