The GSD has said that the Government’s suggestion that anyone within the GSD is targeting Mrs Hernandez with a vendetta is “nonsensical”l and just another “smokescreen behind which the Government is seeking to hide, in order to avoid dealing with matters of public interest in an open and transparent manner.”

The party says it is the “last refuge” of a Government not wanting public scrutiny on a matter that “goes to the heart of their transparency agenda” and the judgment of this Government and its Chief Minister in particular.

Although accepting that Ms Hernandez has every right to expect any disciplinary to be conducted in accordance with well known rules affecting public servants and anyone is presumed innocent until proven otherwise, the party says that this does not mean that the allegations cannot be investigated independently and in a more transparent way. The FJS is, it argues, one of the lynch pins of Government policy and anything that affects such a large number of trainees is a “matter of significant public interest.” The Opposition says it needs to make sure that there are no systemic issues affecting the scheme.

In any event, according to the GSD, the Government cannot avoid the point being made against them that the “secret way” in which they are dealing with serious allegations of abuse made by 35 FJS trainees contrasts sharply with the “way the GSLP-Liberals made Ms Hernandez a cause célèbre when it suited them.” The GSD adds that the allegations made by Ms Hernandez were “milked mercilessly by the GSLP party machinery both in Gibraltar and abroad,” whilst Mr. Picardo represented Ms Hernandez in the Courts in Gibraltar.

It was also this Government that then placed these trainees under the care of Ms Hernandez when they “parachuted” her into a senior managerial position within the public service, according to a statement from the party adding that it is the Government’s own judgment which is also “under scrutiny.”

This matter, says the Opposition, is too serious to allow the Government to sweep it under the carpet and it vows to continue scrutinizing the matter very carefully saying that the public “would expect nothing else.”