The South Cyprus Auditor General Odysseas Michaelides in today’s letter to the members of the Audit and Finance Committee calls on them to legislate in order to end the illegal permanent establishment in the public sector of president Anastasiades’ associates. One is the brother of President Anastasiades, the second is his personal associate, while the other two were his special secretaries in DISY and took them with him to the Presidential. He also gave them brave raises.
The intervention of the Parliament was requested in today’s letter by the Auditor General Odysseas Michaelides in order to remove by legislative regulation the illegal permanentization in the public sector of the four collaborators of President Anastasiades, who were illegally converted into employees of indefinite duration. And with brave increases in the wages they receive. With the Auditor General directly blaming President Anastasiades and the Deputy Minister to the President vassilis Palmas for these illegal establishments in the public sector. In his letter, Odysseas Michaelides does not name the four associates of President Anastasiades and confines himself to the reference that one of the collaborators is a brother of President Anastasiades while the other three worked in DISY, two of whom were acting as secretary of the President of DISY when Nicos Anastasiades was the head of Pindaros. In short, the brotherly mother of the year, a close associate and the two private secretaries of President Anastasiades, were legitimized.
Why illegal
As stated by the auditor general in his letter to the members of the Audit and Finance Committee, instead of terminated the contract of the four associates and renewed year after year, “the Presidency illegally retained the then serving advisors of the President, including the four consultants in question as salaried persons under the previous regime. Whereas, on the basis of the terms of their appointment, the President of the Republic had the absolute right to terminate, whenever he wanted, the appointment of these persons, and could do so so that the model contract (annual contract) expressly provided for by the budget law could then be concluded with these persons, however, these persons remained as employees under the terms of appointment of 2013.”
With Odysseas Michaelides pointing out, at the same time, the following in his letter: “This means that for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018 (part) these four persons received compensation from the budget line intended for the advisors of the President of the Republic in explicit violation of the relevant provision of the budget law as to the terms that should be respected. According to the budget law, the responsibility for this omission lies with the Respective Deputy Minister to the President.
Regardless of the above omission of the Presidency, and the further suspicion it creates, these persons were since 2013 and always time salaried persons for whom the employer was the Republic that paid contributions to the Social Insurance Fund for them. Their employment contract was from the beginning a fixed-term contract, since it was explicitly stated in it (and since 2016 and in the Budget Law) that their appointment would expire at the latest at the end of the term of office of the President of the Republic”.
With the Auditor General denouncing, in addition, the following: “Shortly before the end of the first term of office of the President of the Republic, the four of his advisors in question submitted a written request to the Director of Social Insurance who, as expected, confirmed the obvious: That is, that the employment of these persons fell under the category of salaried persons.
However, the Director of Social Insurance has no power to convert the employment status from fixed to open-ended, nor has he done so. Its sole power is to give an opinion on a person’s employment status, i.e. whether he provides services under the status of an employed person or under the regime of providing services (as a self-employed person). After that, the Presidency illegally decided to convert the employment status of the four consultants into employees of indefinite duration and informed the Director of the Department of Public Administration and Personnel on this, asking for her views on the issue of their payroll placement”.
Salaries from €2,000 and above
Based on the salary statement of employees declared to the Social Insurance Fund, the monthly earnings of these four persons (which include fixed allowances) have evolved over time as follows: the first consultant – brotherly child started with monthly earnings of €2,341 and reached today €3,076, the second consultant started with €2,041 and reached €2,771 while the other two, who perform duties as special secretaries of President Anastasiades started with €2,265 and reached €2,580. Even in the period up to 31 December 2016 when salaries throughout the public sector were by law stable (on ice), the consultants in question received significant increases.
