TRADE and Industry Minister George Lillikas yesterday confirmed that an investigation into the decision to upgrade the Larnaca refinery (CPR) had found that the management had withheld information from the board.
The inquiry, however, decided that the information had not been withheld with intent to deceive, the minister added.
Speaking before the House Watchdog Committee, Lillikas confirmed reports that President Tassos Papadopoulos and his ministry had received a letter from a member of the CPR board, who charged that vital information had been withheld when the board was looking into upgrading the refinery.
The government has already decided to scrap the previous administration’s plans to upgrade the refinery, converting it instead into a fuel import terminal.
The move, according to the government, will save taxpayers around $86 million.
Lillikas said the President had asked him to look into the charges and he in turn wrote to the CPR board asking them to investigate the procedures, leading to the decision to assign the upgrading to Iranian company Sazeh.
The minister added that the board had ruled that, “the general management had withheld information from the board but at the same time judged that there was no aim to deceive”.
Lillikas did not say whether the government was planning to take any measures against management.
Regarding reports in the Iranian press claiming there were political interests behind the attempts to disqualify Sazeh, Lillikas said these were the work of people in Cyprus and Iran whose financial interests had been hurt by the government’s decision not to upgrade the refinery.
Lillikas said the only reason behind the government’s decision was to find the least costly solution for the taxpayer.
The Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Soteris Soteriou, told the committee that the terminal could be up and running in 11 months, adding procedures to construct an energy centre on the coast of Vasiliko were well under way.
The government hopes the centre will be ready in seven to eight years though certain matters need to be settled first, including dismantling the installations of the chemical industries, on whose site the centre will be built.
The minister said the job could only be assigned to experts, due to the materials involved, though there was a second option under consideration.
The government is considering a proposal from the Electricity Authority to built the centre on its land in the same area.
“We are looking into the proposal and if it is economical then it will be selected,” Lillikas said.
He added: “If that is the choice then procedures would be faster though it would take two to three months to complete the studies.”
