Is the GSD still on the Moral High Ground? What about ethics and transparency?
What about ethics and transparency?
asks Thesaurus
The chilling revelations last week on the state of Social affairs would have been enough to warrant a public enquiry to substantiate or refute the allegations made against the service to put minds at rest. Similarly, allegations of malpractice at the GHA should have been investigated as a matter of course. Had similar allegations been made in the UK a full public enquiry would have been carried out by an independent panel. In Gibraltar, under the auspices of the party who boasts of being a ‘caring' government, every measure possible has been taken to prevent any public enquiry being held. The government has used every trick in the book to prevent evidence of maladministration filtering out to the public, from arguing seemingly pedantic legal technicalities at industrial tribunals to an outright wall of silence in the face of questions from relatives, representative associations and the media alike. A government whose slogan includes rhetoric such as ethics, transparency and moral high ground should welcome public enquiries from whichever quarter to put relatives and concerned citizens at rest.
STATE OF DISARRAY The distressing picture of children and adults in some mental and orphan institutions scattered around the ex-Soviet bloc states and exposed in documentaries by the Western media should serve as comfort that similar malpractice, neglect and abuse does not take place in our own regulated and substantially funded state institutions. It is therefore quite a shock to learn that our social services are in such a state of disarray to be on par with some institutions from the former Soviet republics. The systematic catalogue of complaints includes sexual abuse, abusive treatment, assault, missing class ‘A' drugs and medication, and even theft. Could it get any worse?
The GSD are always quick to insinuate ‘political opportunism' whenever complaints about deficiencies at the GHA or Social Services are raised by the opposition, branding any form of criticism as ‘irresponsible'. If any of the allegations that have now surfaced into the public domain, despite concerted and costly efforts on the part of the government to keep a tight lid on the facts, are proven and sustained then this government and in particular the ex-minister for Social Services Yvette del Aqua and the Chief Minister will be personally accountable for the debacle as well as the political cover-up. It is totally unacceptable that political interference prevents a police investigation anywhere not least when serious allegations of abuse are raised. You would expect this from a banana republic but not from a democratic and responsible government in the Western hemisphere.
CRIMINAL NEGLECT These allegations at the Dr. Giraldi Home have been confirmed by the Gibraltar Local Disability Movement. Their spokesman Gordon Nelson did not mince his words when he warned "If by what we have been presented with, was true and we believed it is. It will be the darkest day in the history of Gibraltar. For what could be conceived as a crime against humanity." It is criminal neglect to have allowed some of the charges being brought up to have remained covered-up because it was politically convenient to do so and this is what this government has been, in no uncertain terms accused of.
The Gibraltar Local Disability Movement has long campaigned for the implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act and the set up of a Disability Rights Commission to provide the necessary protection afforded to the most vulnerable in our society. Like in so many other things the GSD has persistently failed its people. It bends over backwards to accommodate deals with Spain and high net individuals, but shows complete and utter contempt for those most at risk. During their last term of office a mentally ill man died an agonizing death strapped to a chair at the KGV, another young teenage mother denied care from Social Services committed suicide, a number of patients have died from negligence at the state of the art hospital and we have still to open the Pandora's box to find out exactly what the extent of negligence and abuse at the Dr. Giraldi Home really is.
The GSD spin machine repeatedly condemns any attempt to ‘politicize' these incidents but in reality it is in the public interest that these occurrences are made public and not simply swept under the political carpet as has been the case for so long. Will the new minister for Justice with the authority and obligation to set up an independent enquiry into these allegations have the political courage to do so, or is this government so implicated that an enquiry is out of the question?
http://www.vox.gi/Features/Is_the_GSD_still_on_the_moral-high-ground-23112007.html 
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