Hernandez case
ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS ALLEGATIONS ‘NOT SUCH AS TO REQUIRE POLICE PROBE’
By Dominique Searle
There is nothing in the allegations that were referred to the Social Services Agency by Joanna Hernandez that the Attorney General Ricky Rhoda believes requires them to be referred to the Royal Gibraltar Police for investigation.
This was confirmed to the Chronicle by Mr Rhoda yesterday in response to questions. Joe Bossano, Opposition Leader, acting for Ms Hernandez, has argued that she was sacked for whistle blowing and suggests Government has wanted to cover up the affair.
The Attorney General said yesterday that the file was referred to his Chambers, but in the context of an employment case, not for investigation which would anyway be the remit of the police. However, he said that the matters contained in these documents, which referred to the Dr Giraldi Home, had already been considered by the Social Services Agency (SSA) before they had been received by his office. He has seen them and does not believe they are such as to require police intervention, but he confirms that earlier allegations were investigated.
Asked to comment on the most recent restatement on this issue by the GSLP Opposition Party, Mr Rhoda said that “it is right to say that most of the allegations contained in their press releases were in that file, but not all.”
The Opposition say that the RGP had “apparently” publicly admitted that the allegations they say they thoroughly investigated were passed onto them on December 2004.
“One would think it would be self evident that since Joanna Hernandez started work the last week in November 2004, the allegations to which the RGP have constantly referred have nothing to do with the Tribunal evidence relating to the unfair dismissal of Joanna Hernandez a year later.”
They say that “obviously this confirms that the Social Services Agency did not take any action in respect of the allegations that were officially reported to them in June 2005”. The Attorney General however says that the SSA had looked into them. He did not take the view that the matter should go further.
But the GSLP has found “surprising” that the Attorney General had included the statements with these allegations in a bundle of documents for the Tribunal Hearing, in June 2006.
“Having been made aware of these statements by the Agency the Attorney General apparently did not advise the Agency of its duty of care towards service-users, nor has he seen fit to bring to the notice of the RGP allegations which might constitute a breach of the law,” said the GSLP.
They add that in the UK, since 1998, there has been specific legislation giving protection to persons who report matters that are suspected of being illegal.
“This protection provides for compensation without a fixed upper limit for dismissals resulting from whistle blowing. The RGP can hardly expect employees or other persons to take on the onus of responsibility for bringing allegations to their notice whilst these have been in the hands of the Government for three years and in the hands of the Crown Prosecution Service, which in Gibraltar is the Attorney General’s office, for at least two,” said the GSLP.
“The very least the RGP should now do is to ask for the file which would have been made public in the course of the Tribunal,” they added.
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