AKEL warned that recruitment procedures in the Police and Fire Brigade force were deficient, but some people turned a blind eye!

Statement by AKEL MP Aristos Damianou after the meeting of the Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee

10 November 2021

The second thing I would like to note as a positive development is the unanimous initiative and decision taken by the Legal Affairs Committee to deal again with the issues concerning the hiring and recruitment of personnel in the Police and Fire Brigade force. This time on the occasion of the well-known decision taken by the Administrative Court in which the recruitment of 100 members of these bodies has been ruled as illegal with unforeseeable consequences, of course, for the operational capacity of the Police and Fire Brigade force.

However, we must speak very frankly about this issue. There are political heads responsible for this development, given that as the AKEL Parliamentary Group, a year and a half ago, we registered and examined this issue at a special session. We had warned that the procedure was deficient. Furthermore, we warned of the dangers of the entire procedure being rejected and ruled unlawful by courts.

Certain people, apparently, were turning a blind eye. And those very people are the same ones who are called upon today to provide solutions. So, there are responsibilities for this state of affairs and it is regrettable that they haven’t even made an apology for their own political handlings and decisions that have led to this complete institutional deadlock.