Parties tell Perdikis to substantiate corruption claims
GREEN party MP George Perdikis has been asked to provide concrete evidence in light of his outspoken remarks on nepotism among ministers in the government.
In an interview with Greek daily Phileleftheros, Perdikis claims the government has failed miserably on the issue of nepotism, while ‘favours’ still exist, ranging from matters such as the appointment of a cleaning lady at a hospital to public tenders worth millions of pounds.
The leader of the Green Party added his organisation had received complaints that some ministers were trying to pursue their own financial gain or that of their friends through Cabinet decisions, saying large sums of money were involved in some cases.
Governing party Spokesman Andros Kyprianou said yesterday that Perdikis had not acted sensibly in giving such an interview.
“Mr Perdikis has said himself that the information he has is unsubstantiated.
Evidence like this is extremely serious and should be confirmed before being made public. What I advise any politician and not only Mr Perdikis to do, is to be responsible when making such allegations, as it could cause people to look down on the political standard in Cyprus,” the AKEL MP said.
Even though DIKO leader Marios Karoyian did not deny that this was happening, he called on Perdikis to provide evidence regarding his accusation of nepotism.
“It is very easy for us politicians to start rumours about anyone but the most important thing in such cases is to substantiate these allegations so as not to put another person’s integrity in doubt,” he said.
“That there are some negatives going on in the public sphere is something that we must accept, but we must also understand that this government has become much stricter on the issue in recent times.”
Perdikis yesterday defended his comments, saying that all he had done was tell the truth.
“One of the shortcomings of the government in relation to its electoral manifesto was that it has not succeeded in quashing the phenomenon of nepotism. This is of course something that the president himself admitted only last week. All I did was respond to a question that a journalist asked me,” he said.
He also explained the procedure that was followed when they received any information of corruption in the ranks of the government.
“Whenever we get some complaints we immediately forward them to the President of the Republic, something that we have been doing. This does not mean such information is true and I am not saying that with our help hundreds of scandals have been uncovered, but there have been some cases that action has been taken after evidence we have provided,” Perdikis said.
He told the Cyprus Mail that nobody could deny that this happened in Cyprus and said that he was “one of those people that was not afraid to comment on it”.
During the interview, Perdikis said he received so many complaints he did not have time to inform the president of the content of all of them, confirming that he did not intend to publish any of the letters he had sent Papadopoulos on the matter.
This is not the first time that the issue of nepotism in the government has hit the headlines during Papadopoulos’ reign. Politis newspaper caused havoc in the political landscape last November when it published lists of people requesting transfers and their benefactors, complete with names and dates.
The sponsors included personalities such as House President Demetris Christofias, former presidential aide Polakis Sarris, DIKO deputy Nicos Cleanthous, former Finance Minister (now EU Health Commissioner) Marcos Kyprianou and former Interior Minister Andreas Christou.
