Society pays the bill – Article by Eleni Mavrou, AKEL Political Bureau member

 

Sunday 28 August 2022, “Haravgi” newspaper

The Audit Office’s report on the government’s “golden passports” scheme confirms, for the umpteenth time, the rotten state of corruption and illegality that the Anastasiades-DISY government has created and inflated during its ten years of rule.

Nothing included in the report is new. It was preceded by the blacklist issued by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a Report released by the World Bank noting the Republic of Cyprus’ slide in scrutiny over corruption, a European Commission report, dozens of public statements and denunciations that were issued by AKEL and other parties since 2015 and countless of press reports in Cyprus and abroad. Indeed on 20 October 2020, the then Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides received a letter from the EU Justice Commissioner stressing that “national measures providing for the establishment and operation of a citizenship programme for investors, such as the Cyprus Investment Programme, are not in line with EU law”. And this despite the fact that the presidential candidate, Mr. Christodoulides, today boasts that he was unaware of anything, calling for accountability.

With the report issued by the Audit Office, however, the government’s political responsibilities are now recorded in facts and figures. As the report points out, in many cases the Ministerial Council broke the law by granting citizenships to Mafiosi and dictators, to people with illegal and suspicious dealings, in abuse of their power.

The report of the Audit Office highlights yet another aspect: the deprivation of billions of euros from the state coffers (and therefore from every citizen) due to the reduced VAT on primary homes, the cancelation of contracts, fictitious purchases and sales that are still pending.

Society will be the one to foot the bill. Not only because this money would have boosted state coffers. But also because, following the detection of fraud, the European Commission urgently called for a change in legislation. This means that many young couples who are considering or are in the process of building or buying their first home are very unlikely to benefit from the reduced VAT rate of 5%.

The European Commission has even initiated infringement proceedings against the country which means that the Republic of Cyprus risks being fined on top of the government’s lucrative (for a privileged few) practices.

So much for the “golden passport” industry from which specific big law and accountancy firms and construction companies profited, leading to the bubble in property prices and rents.

In the debate during the session of the Parliamentary Audit Committee the day before yesterday, the government ruling forces tried – in vain – to denigrate the Audit Office and its report. The main argument was the opinions of the Attorney General! This is the same man who, as a former member of the Ministerial Council, was involved in the decisions under review on the granting of citizenships. This is the same man who, to this day, keeps the findings of the Nicolatos Commission of Inquiry in the dark, marking in black names and situations.

Mr. Anastasiades’ has decided to take the downhill path. It is the choice taken by the DISY party leadership and others to go along with this downhill path. But we must not permit the country to be dragged down this downhill path. Let’s finally put an end to the “most corrupt government”.