THE Nicosia municipality has approved a limited liability company to renovate the Nicosia centre, the capital’s mayor confirmed yesterday.
Although this decision to contract the renovation effort to the private sector may speed up construction and eliminate much of the red tape, it has also raised questions about whether a municipal project should be undertaken without public oversight.
Nicosia Mayor Michalakis Zampelas managed to get his privatisation proposal past the Municipal Council last month. The Council had resisted him for two years over concerns that a private Board of Directors rather than a public body would manage the work. The mayor attributes fear of change behind the opposition to his plan.
But not everyone in the Municipal Council opposed the mayor. Municipal Councillor Ioannis Fakas disagrees with the mayor on some issues but “on issues having to do with money and improvement of the city, I am with him”. Fakas believes that the two-year standoff with the Municipal Council came about because the mayor had to appease the various members of contesting political parties.
The mayor presented to the Municipal Council his study of privately managed renovations in European cities like Manchester and Liverpool. Such projects, the mayor told the Cyprus Mail yesterday, have been environmental and economic successes that demonstrate “it is better to go into partnership with the private sector”.
The company will be a “public-private partnership” that includes representatives from the Technical Chamber, ETEK, the Nicosia Businessman’s Organisation, EVEL, and the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, CTO, among others. The Board of Directors elect the managing director and make all decisions, which makes it easier to fire and hire people and “get things done”, although it also narrows decision-making to a small group of business leaders.
Initially the members of the organisation will fund the renovation. As the project develops, it is likely that funding will come from EU funds, member investments and long-term loans.
The mayor called this limited liability company “a public company” but went on to qualify that it is public in the sense that the members will come from all areas, including government: “Members could be the government, municipality, CYTA, anybody.” But although the government can participate as members, the company is no different from any corporation in that any decisions are left entirely to the board of directors, a private entity, with oversight left only to the shareholders.
The mayor does not see the effort as a Municipal project. “It is sponsored by the Municipality but then it is handed over to the company.” Unease over this handover is in part what kept the proposal from getting through the Municipal Council for two years. It remains to be seen whether this unease will now taper off or instead fester on as a thorn in the mayor’s side.
