THE CABINET yesterday appointed a special committee to study the House report on the stock market (CSE) fiasco and present a report within two weeks.
The CSE report, which was released last week, blamed the cabinet and the finance minister, among many others, for maintaining a passive and indifferent stance while thousands of people were losing their life savings.
The publication of the report last week sparked a bitter spat between the government and the House, with barbs exchanged on a daily basis.
Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said the committee would be made up of the Attorney-general Alecos Markides, who was also criticised in the House report for dragging his feet in prosecuting those involved in the debacle, Finance Minister Takis Klerides, who bore the brunt of the House’s blame, and Health and Interior Ministers Frixos Savvides and Andreas Panayiotou.
Papapetrou stressed the urgency of the task, adding the government had set a 15-day deadline for the committee to come up with its findings, which would be discussed by the Cabinet in special meetings.
The hefty report, prepared by the House Watchdog and Finance Committees who investigated the 1999-2000 CSE crash, blamed the Cabinet, the Finance Minister, brokers, CSE authorities, the Central Bank Governor, the chairmen of the two biggest banks on the island, lawyers and accountants, and to a lesser extend politicians and parties for their part in the fiasco.
Markides and the police were censured for not moving fast enough and not initiating any investigations into the matter of their own accord.
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.
