THE CHURCH was yesterday faced with new revelations about the plundering of its property, as the Bishop of Paphos admitted the Holy Synod should have looked into the issue years ago.
Continuing its exposé on the issue, Politis yesterday revealed one more case concerning the Chairman of the Civil Service Committee, Andreas Karageorgis, who this time was alleged to have acquired Church land in the Moniatis area in the Limassol district.
On Wednesday, Politis revealed that Karageorgis and former land survey department director Andreas Georgiou had acquired coastal Church property for a fraction of its market value. The two were said to have paid £60,000 – £30,000 a piece — for a 5,200-metre square area valued at £320,000.
According to yesterday’s Politis, Karageorgis, who is Archbishop Chrysostomos’ close friend, also acquired a further 5.5 donums – 3,090 square metres — of land in April 1997, after receiving Chrysostomos’ written permission.
Karageorgis paid £15,000 for the land, which according to two independent surveys is currently worth over £60,000.
The most conservative estimates put the value of the land at the time of sale in 1997at over £30,000, while much smaller plots of land next to it – 500 to 700 square metres each — are currently going for £25,000 to £35,000.
Politis also hinted there were more irregularities in the matter since an access road, which in reality does not exist, had appeared on land survey department maps.
The fact that the department has drawn a road on the map meant that if the area were to be developed in the future, the local authorities would have to foot the bill for its construction, the daily said.
In a similar case, a local resident who was having serious problems accessing his plot, was sorted out shortly after referring to Karageorgis’ case.
A land survey official in Limassol allegedly told Politis that the demarcation of the land had been done in that way “after instructions from Nicosia”.
Bishop Chrysostomos of Paphos yesterday said the Synod had been forced to approve the transactions because they had been presented as a de facto.
“It was a done deal and we approved it,” Chrysostomos said.
He added: “I saw the Archbishop and asked why did you do these things?”
According to Chrysostomos, the Archbishop told him that Karageorgis had been handling all his English correspondence for the past 25 years while Georgiou had done a lot of work for the Church in his capacity as land survey department director.
Chrysostomos added, however, that the problem was not only with Karageorgis and Georgiou, but with the broader mismanagement due to the Archbishop’s illness and “because some people in his surroundings are not ashamed and never stop”.
Bishop Chrysostomos said the case of the Archbishopric’s accountant Chrysostomos Phillipou, who is said to have set up his own real estate company, should also be examined, because “there are millions of pounds at stake and everybody should learn to respect.”
“We are to blame; we should have taken the decision years ago,” he added.
The Holy Synod on Wednesday decided to suspend “any authorisation (he Archbishop has given) to anyone to withdraw money, sign cheques, or make agreements that bind Archbishopric.”
In a written statement issued after the Synod’s meeting, Bishop Varnavas of Salamina was named as the only authority that could sign on behalf of the Archbishopric, while a three-member committee had to approve all transactions concerning the transfer of property, long-term leasing and acquisition of land.
Bishop Chrysostomos yesterday also said that certain people should never have been allowed to have credit cards and withdraw Church money.
Chrysostomos also confirmed that the Synod was looking into two other suspicious cases concerning the long term leasing of Church land.
The cases involve a 25-donum coastal area near the Tombs of the Kings in Paphos, which had been leased for just £15,000 per year. By way of comparison, Kykkos Monastery had in a similar deal leased 18 donums for £210,000 a year.
Chrysostomos added that he suspected the person who had leased the Tomb of the Kings land has sold the contract on to someone else for £2 million.
“If it’s true, and it must be, it is scandalous,” he said.
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.
