Hundreds of businesses were allowed to close due to the pandemic, and others were supported with state money without being entitled

 

9 June 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

The Audit Office’s findings of millions of euros given to non-beneficiaries during the pandemic are extremely serious. Thirty-two million euros were given to non-beneficiaries and another 13.8 million euros were mistakenly given to foreign companies.

A waste of public money of this magnitude cannot be justified and certainly dispels the previous government’s myth of what it claims was a supposedly perfect management of the pandemic. It is reasonable to ask whether all these were not mistakes, but instead serving cronies and clients and, moreover, in the midst of a campaign for the parliamentary elections.

AKEL requests that a detailed list be submitted to Parliament with the details of the natural and legal persons who received financial support to which they were not entitled and the relevant dates, as well as the list of beneficiaries of state support that was not granted to them in the end.

It is doubly provocative that businesses that were not entitled to it were supported with public money, while hundreds of other businesses affected by the pandemic were allowed to close.