THE ACCOUNTANT-general and the Land Survey Department are to study land appropriation procedures in order to spot the weak points and avoid future irregularities, Interior Minister Andreas Panayiotou said yesterday.
The decision comes in the wake of the arrests of three people, suspected of forging government documents registering compensation paid by the state to the owners of appropriated land, and swindling around £350,000 in cash.
The three were yesterday re-remanded in custody for seven days.
The matter was discussed yesterday during a meeting chaired by Panayiotou.
After the meeting, Panayiotou said that from the first moment the irregularity had been discovered he had called the Auditor-general and the state’s accountant to help in solving the case.
“It has been decided that the Accountant-general together with the land survey department will look into the current system from the moment the land was appropriated until the cheque was issued to the owner,” Panayiotou said.
The two departments would present their findings within 15 days, identifying the loopholes in the system that had enabled people to issue state cheques for hundreds of thousands of pounds without being noticed.
The minister said their suggestions would be submitted to the Internal Audit Board that would take all necessary decisions to wipe out the weaknesses cleverly exploited by these people to embezzle huge amounts of cash from the state.
“With the existing system, some officials were given the authority to issue orders in lieu of cheques. The orders were then conveyed to the Accountant-general, who issued the cheques,” Panayiotou said.
“It is at this point that we spotted several irregularities concerning the order; the controls on the system seem to be deficient.
“In an effort to speed up procedures, controls over the orders were restricted, resulting in these unscrupulous individuals exploiting the procedures to defraud the state,” Panayiotou said.
The minister said that according to the irregularities discovered until now, the amount embezzled had reached £350,000.
He said the investigation into the case went as far back as 1992, stressing that the people whose land had been appropriated have been compensated and the irregularities concerned bogus orders for the issue of cheques.
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