Customs officers under fire for massive overtime payments

SOME customs officers take home more than double their annual salaries by working overtime, the Auditor-general’s report for 2000 has revealed.

Apparently, some employees earned a whopping £25,600 in overtime, on top of a fixed annual salary of just £15,000.

Therefore an officer on a £15,000 grade can bank up to £40,000, in practices that some fear are a deliberate effort to shunt as much work as possible into the afternoons.

As civil servants, their official office hours are 7.30am to 2.30pm. Work done after their contracted time is paid extra.

Phileleftheros yesterday claimed that the cost of customs’ house salaries had jumped £300,727 to £2.72 million in 2000, compared to £2.42 million in 1999.

By contrast, the profit margin grew by only £212,480, up from £1.86 million in 1999 to £2.07 million in 2000.

Overtime payments amounted to £643,711 in 2000, compared to £55,472 in 1999.

The Auditor’s report allegedly singled out 25 specific employees, who commandeered overtime pay worth a total of £640,000.

The newspaper claimed that employees admitted to being in no hurry to process some cargo, in order to reap the impressive benefits of overtime pay.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.