Is there still Rule of Law in Gibraltar? Is there corruption in the local police?
Are employees' Human Rights protected? Is there a mafia in Gibraltar?
How corrupt are the Courts in Gibraltar? Is Entain a bad employer?
- Home page
- My witness statement for the courts
- Evidence supporting my witness statement
- Failure of the first Tribunal Chairman
- Sabotage of the Tribunal transcript
- The evidence in the Tribunal transcript
- Press articles about Tribunal failings
- Corruption articles in the international press
- Entain / GVC
- Hassans law firm
- The Disciplinary Committee and LSRA
- Gibraltar Police
At first sight, this seems to be incorrect as Chief Minister Fabian Picardo's Government established the Anti-Corruption Authority Act 2022, founding the Anti-Corruption Authority (ACA) in January 2023. This should supposedly have become an independent body responsible for investigating and preventing of corruption in Gibraltar and with the power to investigate any person or organisation suspected of corruption at all levels of society. The reality is that, to date, nothing has happened to get the ACA operating.
Even worse, if the ACA would have been operational now, the Anti-Corruption Authority Act 2022 completely fails to ensure the required independence of the ACA. The Chief Minister appoints and removes members of the ACA, amongst other powers, so there are no safeguards to ensure the ACA's independence. The Chief Minister keeps all power to restrict production of evidence, to restrict the disclosure of information and documents and to censor reports.
A possible explanation can be found in the McGrail inquiry, where Chief Minister Picardo, together with the Attorney General, is investigated for corruption by forcing the then Police Commissioner Ian McGrail into early retirement because he had executed a search warrant against a personal friend and mentor of Mr Picardo: Mr James Levy from the Hassans law firm It looks quite unlikely that Mr Picardo is going to activate the ACA while he himself is under investigation for corruption, a fact that was widely published in the international press, but as well while he has all the power to completely sabotage the ACA's investigation against him. In other words: this non-existent ACA is a complete joke aimed at misleading voters.
It got even worse. Just before the McGrail inquiry hearings were due to begin, Fabian Picardo's Government published a new bill governing public inquiries which would give Gibraltar's Government the power to stop the inquiry in which Mr Picardo's alleged corruption was investigated. This bill was to be passed in 1 week under emergency legislation powers, bypassing the normal 6-week wait for bills to be debated in Gibraltar’s Parliament. Picardo's Government claimed that it was introducing this legislation "to align with the UK’s Inquiries Act 2005". This UK law was by then almost 20 years old. The sudden urgency of Picardo's bill raised strong suspicions that its real intention was to undermine the McGrail inquiry. Although there were many protests against this bill, Picardo's Government completely ignored those and passed the bill.
The Codes of Conduct for Government Ministers also remain without being put into effect. 8 years have passed since they were published in draft form. The proposals also fall short of the equivalent UK codes.
This leaves the local police as only authority which could investigate corruption in Gibraltar. The lack of independence of the Royal Gibraltar Police is a real source of worry for many residents in Gibraltar, though.
For further reading about these issues, there is an interesting article on the Llanito World blog.
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