About Us

The Principal Auditor

The audit powers of the Gibraltar Audit Office (GAO) are vested in the head of the GAO, the Principal Auditor (Auditor General). The Principal Auditor is an officer of the Gibraltar Parliament and:

• is appointed by the Specified Appointments Commission in accordance with Section 56(2) of the Gibraltar Constitution Order 2006;
• is independent in accordance with Section 74(3) of the Gibraltar Constitution Order 2006; and
• reports to the Gibraltar Parliament in accordance with Section 74(2) of the Gibraltar Constitution Order 2006.

The current Principal Auditor is Mr Tony Sacramento who took up the appointment on 3 April 2017.

The role of the Gibraltar Audit Office

One of the most important roles of the Parliament is to hold the Government to account for its use of public money. The Parliament needs objective and fact based information about how well Government raises and spends public funds. The GAO, through the Principal Auditor, is an independent and reliable source of such information. Its principal role is to examine the receipt of public sector revenues and to scrutinise public spending on behalf of the Principal Auditor.

By reporting the results of our audits to the Gibraltar Parliament, we help hold government departments, statutory corporations, authorities and agencies to account for the way they use public money. In addition, our work aims to help government departments and statutory bodies improve performance and service delivery.

In carrying out our work the GAO is guided by the three key principles of public audit:

• Through the Principal Auditor, we are independent of the organisations that we audit;
• The Principal Auditor reports our findings in public; and
• We conduct audits on behalf of the Principal Auditor to determine whether organisations deliver value for money.

Staffing

The GAO has a staff complement of twenty-one officers, headed by the Principal Auditor and is structured into two External Audit Teams (that audit the operations of Government departments), one Treasury Audit Team (that primarily audits the operations of the Treasury Department and the Gibraltar Health Authority), one Statutory Authorities and Agencies Team (that audits all statutory authorities and agencies) and one Performance Audit Team (that carries out value for money audits). Staff positions are highlighted in the organogram link below.