INTERIOR Minister Andreas Panayiotou said yesterday the government was investigating 29 cases of companies evading mortgage fees by registering as members of the Paphos Co-Op Bank.
The probe has so far shown that the government was defrauded £40,000 in this way. Investigations are expected to be completed by next week.
On Tuesday, a senior officer of the Paphos co-op was put on administrative leave as allegations mounted. Andreas Tsiappis later told the media that co- op officials were not aware, or were uncertain, that co-op banks could provide such a service to companies, adding that this has been standard practice for 10 years.
The law states that only individuals can register as members of co-ops. Tsiappis was suggesting that co-op officials misinterpreted the law, thinking loans extend to the companies of directors who applied.
The same argument was employed yesterday by Vangelis Georgiou, a member of the Pancyprian Co-Op Federation. An announcement issued by the federation on Thursday said that the case in Paphos was an “isolated incident” and that the affair had been blown out of all proportion.
Meanwhile a criminal investigator has been appointed by the Chief of Police to find possible penal liability for co-op officials.
A nationwide investigation is in full swing, and yesterday the Interior Minister said that the Famagusta and Larnaca co-ops had been found to be clean. The probe into the Nicosia and Limassol districts would be completed by Monday, and investigations in Paphos by late next week.
Paphos co-op chairman and DIKO deputy Nicos Pittokopitis has staunchly defended the integrity of the bank, but has been accused of failing to stamp out constant allegations of a scam; a similar case with the co-op and the Land Registry had been investigated in the past.
Asked yesterday by reporters whether a politician (evidently referring to Pittokopitis) could be called to testify to police investigators, Attorney- general Alecos Markides said the police could not question a deputy without first securing permission from the Supreme Court. Markides added that it was too early to say if such a “drastic” measure was needed at all.
