Clientelism/favoritism with a Presidential stamp – Article by Eleni Mavrou – AKEL Political Bureau member

 

Sunday 16 January 2022, ‘Haravgi’ newspaper

In February 2018, four people working at the Presidential Office as “advisers” to N.Anastasiades were given the opportunity to move to the civil service. The change in their employment status was made secretly and illegally since, as of 2016, such a possibility had been prohibited by law.

These individuals found their way to the Presidential Office through political appointments, as personal choices made by the President of the Republic and not through any transparent civil service procedure. In such cases, it is clear that they will remain in office until the end of the President’s term at the latest.

As a result, the President’s four select appointees now represent a permanent burden on the state payroll. With a monthly salary, in fact, of approximately €3,000 since, over the years, contrary to the salary and benefit freeze in force in the civil service, they had been enjoying constant increases. In just 8 years they had received salary increases that in the civil service for equivalent positions one would need 25 whole years to cover such amounts!

Not to mention the fact that the President subsequently exploited the €120,000 he “saved” from the approved fund to hire more “advisors” too! It should also be noted that the President’s Office employs more than 60 “advisors” at a cost of more than €1 million per year.

Following the revelations made by the Audit Office about… the astonishing going ons that were taking place at the Presidential Office, the other parties – with the exception of the ruling DISY party – passed an amendment in the House of Representatives during the approval of the State Budget for 2022, which explicitly states that the employment of government collaborators/advisors “shall be terminated at the latest at the end of the given government’s term of office“, while the possibility of granting additional salary benefits in the event that civil servants find themselves in the position of an advisor was excluded.

A few days ago, the Attorney General, Giorgos Savvides, announced that “on the instructions of President Anastasiades, he registered an appeal to the Supreme Court” over these specific legislative provisions. In other words, the Attorney General of the Republic is once again undermining the authority of the institution to defend, in effect, a personal political favor of the President.

• The arrogance of this action is provocative – both politically and morally.
• It not only represents a provocation to political institutions – the Parliament.
• It is, above all, a provocation to society, especially at a time when thousands of our compatriots are struggling to make ends meet.
• It is a provocation to the thousands of workers whom the government has arbitrarily placed in a purchase for services status, thus depriving them of 1/3 of their income.
• It is a provocation at the expense of thousands of young people who are sacrificing years of hard work and money studying while trying to survive on crumbs, at the same time as others have as their sole attribute their “inside connection” with the government ruling forces.

You will say to me: this is not the worst of what we have seen this President do, with the cover provided by the ruling DISY party. You wouldn’t be wrong in saying that.

It’s enough to recall, for example, the arrogance with which the President passed over the scandal of the family holiday trip in a Saudi tycoon friend’s private jet to the Seychelles or the shameless selling off of Cypriot citizenship Or the high-profile resolution approved by the European Parliament on corruption that was perceived and bypassed as “mudslinging/smears”.

However, neither our country, nor we, deserve such a governance. Remember that…