AKEL exposes and denounces government bills promoting privatisations
Statement of Stavros Evagorou, Deputy Parliamentary Spokesperson of AKEL-Left-New Forces
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 26th May 2015, Nicosia
Each day that goes by the government through its actions confirms that its sole concern is the selling off of public wealth and the abolition of the public character of the Semi-government organizations. Despite the pre-election pledges made by President Anastasiades, the long-lasting obsession of the Government and the governing DISY party for abolishing anything public takes precedence over the will of the majority of the people who support maintaining the public character of Semi-government organizations.
This is the philosophy behind the two bills tabled in the House of Representatives by the government for the selling off of the Cyprus Ports Authority and with regards the functioning of public institutions and state enterprises. The relevant bill tabled for the public organizations of general interest:
- Promotes the privatization of organizations in a hidden way
- Concentrates all administrative, executive, managerial, supervision and control powers in the hands of the government and its Ministers,
- Abolishes the autonomy and independence of Semi-state organizations,
- Abolishes the boards of the organizations,
- Bypasses any parliamentary control
- Seeks to bypass constitutional obstacles to the privatization procedure.
The bills concerning the privatization of the Cyprus Ports Authority:
- Separate the control of the ports of Cyprus given that the right is granted to award all the ports of the Republic of Cyprus to a strategic investor and not only of the commercial activities of the Limassol port.
- Bypass any public authority and control, given that they give the possibility to the Council of Ministers through the issuing of Decrees to define the respective fees and charges payable for the use of ports to the given strategic investor.
As AKEL, we consider the selling off of important and profitable Semi-governmental organizations unacceptable and provocative. The privatization process cannot proceed because:
- It leads to surrendering national wealth which has been created through the sacrifices of all the Cypriot people.
- Promotes the sale of organizations at humiliating prices by taking away from the State the control over key infrastructure sectors.
- Nullifies the long-standing economic and social role played by these organizations. In recent years, three Semi-state Organizations (Cyprus Electricity Authority EAC, Cyprus Telecommunications Authority CYTA and the Cyprus Ports Authority ALK) have contributed more than 1 billion Euros to the state, whilst they have also contributed to investments to the development and support of the Cyprus economy
With mathematically certainty, privatizations will lead to redundancies, rising unemployment and the deregulation of labour relations for all
- The strategically important partnership on infrastructure and security issues cannot be left to the discretion of any private individual/sector as they perceive it in line with market conditions and profit.
AKEL’s firm position is that the Semi-governmental organizations can and should be continuously modernized in their efforts to fulfill with integrity and adequately their public mission. This however cannot be used as an excuse for selling them off. This is why we urge the President of the Republic to terminate the faits accomplis and discuss with the political parties the modernization of the organizations and not their privatization.
AKEL disagrees with the framework that is being formulated for the Semi-government organizations and will vote against the draft bills in the House of Representatives.
