The public character of Semi-governmental organizations must be preserved

Statement of Georgos Loucaides, AKEL C.C. Spokesperson

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 17th February 2016, Nicosia

 

The President of the governing DISY party Mr. Neophytou on the one hand denounces populism, but on the other, permit me to say, resorts to unbridled populism in an attempt to support his party’s positions. This is truly regrettable.

If Mr. Neophytou was really concerned – we say he isn’t concerned and that the DISY leadership’s general behavior is hypocritical – he should have reflected on all that he was referring to when the Anastasiades-DISY government decided together with the troika to significantly increase the primary surpluses that are demanded by around €700m, which have been cut from education, health, social welfare and growth.

Moreover, Mr. Neophytou must give an answer to the question raised about the hundreds of millions our country will lose if the profitable Semi-governmental organizations are led to their plundering.

DISY President Mr. Neophytou must also give a reply as to how many schools wouldn’t have been built had the roughly €700 million in dividends the Semi-governmental Cyprus Telecommunications Authority CYTA had returned back to the state revenues, hadn’t been given and instead went to accounts in Switzerland or to another foreign country of some multinational company.

Will Mr. Neophytou tell us why certain multinational companies, monopolies or some private interests in Cyprus should receive these hundreds of millions?

Will Mr. Neophytou finally give us an answer as to why taxpayers should pay hundreds of millions to sustain those employees who will be transferred from these organizations to the public sector, without them having any essential duties to perform and contrary to their own desire?

Will Mr. Neophytou at last tell us how to avoid the phenomenon that we have in other sectors of the economy where private monopolies or oligopolies exist? That is to say, how will the private monopolies or oligopolies that will replace either the Semi-governmental Cyprus Electricity Authority or the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority not brutally exploit consumers?

Furthermore, why didn’t the government manage to protect citizens in terms of banks and interest rates, in terms of fuel prices and a number of other sectors where there is enormous profiteering?

How will citizens be protected from the profiteering speculation when the economy will move towards private oligopolies and private monopolies in these sectors?

I think the answers speak for themselves and the answer is that the interests of consumers, taxpayers and of working people in these sectors, but also the interests of the Cyprus economy, are that the public character of these organizations must be preserved.