EVER SINCE this Vatopedi Monastery scandal appeared in the news, I have been trying to understand what all the hysteria is about and why Greece’s media have been making such an almighty fuss about a few smart business deals struck by the monks.
Even now – after all the media revelations and the completion of the inquiry by Greek Parliament’s investigative committee – we are still in the dark. I’m no lawyer, but it is plain to see that no crime had been committed, which makes you wonder why everyone was outraged about some good old-fashioned clerical wheeler-dealing.
I am inclined to agree with the Vatopedi monastery’s devout and God-fearing financial adviser Athos Kiranides who on a CyBC TV show last Thursday night (only after insufferable presenter Yiannakis Nicolaou finally allowed him to talk) said the scandal was nothing more than ‘a journalistic bubble’.
He was right. Exposing the corruption of some politicians hardly qualifies as a shocking revelation. And I very much doubt that anyone was even mildly surprised to read that Cypriot monks had behaved like greedy, money-grubbing, opportunists, heaven-bent on amassing vast quantities of assets and cash for the sake of their monastery. Let’s not forget that amassing wealth is as much a part of the Kyproullan monastic life as growing a beard.
IN GREECE they were probably shocked because their monks are not mean, money-making machines like their Cypriot brothers, but what excuse did the Cypriot media have for being outraged by the Vatopedi revelations?
It was a touch hypocritical of Cypriot papers, which have consistently benefited from Kykkos’ monastic generosity, to be expressing disgust because Vatopedi made some millions from its investments and shafted the Greek state over a land deal. Vatopedi’s total assets, estimated at about €70 million by Kiranides, are peanuts compared to the assets held by our own Kykkos monastery.
Kykkos CEO, Bishop Nikiforos wouldn’t get out of his designer bed for €70 million, but none of our papers express disgust about his supergalactic money-making exploits and the fact that his monastery’s assets are worth many billions of euros. Is it because the big-spending Nikiforos gives charity to newspapers, TV stations and journalists unlike Vatopedi’s stingy, little-league CEO Ephraim?
AS A TAXPAYER, I would like to make a complaint to the General Manager of CyBC, Themis Themistocleous about the corporation’s decision to give a night-time slot to the corporation’s worst presenter, Yiannakis Nicolaou.
Is it not enough that he irritates lunch-time TV audiences with his lack of intelligence, vacuous verbosity and know-it-all attitude? The guy is so in love with his own voice he never lets anyone finish what they are saying and instead of encouraging his guests to talk, he uses their comments as an excuse for his own nonsensical sermons.
On Thursday night, he managed to kill an interesting subject by constantly interrupting his guests and failing to ask a single, decent question. Where was CyBC’s news boss, Yiannis Kareklas? He normally does the Thursday night show and is a heavyweight intellectual compared to Nicolaou.
OUR CARING, socially-sensitive, public-spirited and charitable banks are determined to increase interest rates in 2009. But the interest rate on new loans will not be just 7.5 per cent which is what they will arbitrarily impose on old loans from January 1.
People who have gone to the bank for personal loans have been informed that the interest rate charged would be 10 per cent. This is daylight robbery, whichever way you look at it but, customers who objected were told to go elsewhere if they thought the rate was too high.
All of a sudden, the interest rates, charged by the underworld loan sharks, are looking pretty competitive. The only advantage of using the banks nowadays, is that they do not place a bomb under your car when you miss a repayment. But the way they are ripping off customers they can afford to show a little flexibility.
NOT THAT the banks think they are ripping anyone off. Bank of Cyprus CEO, Andreas Eliades, was not showing off his black sense of humour, when he said the following about his company’s intentions:
“I want to assure you today that during these difficult times that the world banking system is going through, the Bank of Cyprus, as always, will be standing by its customers.” Do these guys think before they talk?
They will stand by us by fleecing us with the highest interest rates in the EU. According to Eliades, only with “balanced profitability” could “the organisation offer reliable support to its customers.”
It is reassuring to know that the only reason the B of C wants to maintain its abnormal profits is so it could be able to support its customers, at least those who will not declare bankruptcy, as a result of the extortionate interest rates.
OUR ONLY hopes now rest with our miracle-worker comrade presidente, who has “proved that mountains can be moved” in the diplomatic field. Would he be able to do the same in the banking field?
Despite his efforts so far, he has failed to persuade the bankers not to raise interest rates. A meeting he was scheduled to have with bank bosses last week was called off, when he was informed that he would not be able to save us as the bankers had no intention of budging.
Christofias did however meet the Marfin-Laiki big boss Andreas Vgenopoulos, who, is more politician than banker when speaking publicly.
On his departure from the palazzo, Vgenopoulos said the consequences of the world crisis should be confronted “with the widest possible social consensus and social justice.”
And next year, “there could even be some reduction in interest rates that would help the Cyprus economy,” he said. Talk about positive spin – no mention that next year the only certainty is the increase in interest rates.
HATS OFF to the formidable researcher-turned-deputy director-turned-acting director of the European Institute of Cyprus (EIC) Neophytos Chrysochos who has shown us how easy it is to maximise your earnings in the public sector when you are left to do as you please by the government.
The Institute was operating illegally for three years with the blessing of our government. The Board of Regents which, by law, had to sanction executive decisions, approve the annual budget, promote staff, appoint auditors had not met for three years, which gave Chrysochos licence to do as he pleased, once he was made acting director in 2004.
His appointment was made by then foreign minister Yiorkos Iacovou, but was illegal, for two reasons. The Board of Regents of which Iacovou was the chairman had not approved it. More interestingly, the Institute’s charter had no provision for the position of deputy director. Chrysochos was a pseudo-director of a pseudo institute. The last time the Board had met was June 2003, a point made by the Auditor-general in her annual report for 2007.
She wrote that the actions and decisions of the Institute, “such as the approval of the annual budget, approval of accounts, appointment of auditors, appointment/promotion of staff that took place after June 6, 2003 were not legally sound.”
BUT THERE were audited accounts for the 2003-2006 period. These had been approved by the Board, claimed the signatory Chrysochos. He had to lie because without audited accounts approved by the Board, the Institute would not be eligible for EU funds.
In the period where the Board never met, Chrysochos moved up three salary scales, seeing his annual salary increase by €16,000 in three-and-a-half years. And as acting director he also gave himself a car and a whopping expenses allowance. Not bad for a guy hired as a researcher.
Asked at the House Committee, how he had taken all these decisions, which needed Board approval, Chrysochos said he had authorisation from Giorgos Lillikas, the foreign minister at the time. In Kyproulla, ministers have the constitutional power to authorise rule-breaking and deception.
And when the House Committee meets this week to continue its discussion of the matter, we would greatly appreciate it if a deputy asked what kind of work the Institute was supposed to do.
ONLY THE Gulf of Mexico has more hydrocarbons than the seas south of Cyprus, announced the civil servant, who talks more rubbish and more often than most politicians.
I refer to the verbally incontinent head of the government’s Energy Department Solon Kasinis, the man who, among other things, had predicted that by 2010 Kyproulla would be selling crude oil to all of Europe.
This is the same wise official who announced one day that Kyproulla should set up a nuclear power station, as this would provide cheap electricity. Some months ago he announced he would be visiting Israel to examine a very efficient solar energy system, which he would bring to the island.
A few days ago, Kasinis announced that it would be cheaper for Cyprus to pay the EU fines for its high CO2 emissions than invest in the production of clean energy.
And then we are wondering why for seven years absolutely nothing has been done to implement the government’s decision to import LNG. The head of the Energy Department is just too busy talking about his loony ideas to do any real work.
This week it was reported that the government’s drive to hire a foreign consultant to advise it on the LNG project ended in failure. Only one consultant tendered for the job and we did not want him, so a new tender has to be called.
With Kasinis in charge of implementing energy policy, by the time we are ready to import LNG, the world’s natural gas reserves will have been depleted.
THINGS are not looking good for the new Sunday paper Kathimerini, which, we hear, has failed to meet its advertising and circulation targets, despite the free gifts it is offering and a heavy advertising campaign to promote it.
Its latest radio advertising campaign suggests that things have become quite desperate. One of the advantages of buying Kathimerini, the ad informs us, is that it is printed with special ink which does not dirty your hands.
Pity we have no fish and chip shops in Cyprus, because Kathimerini could have marketed itself as the best newspaper to wrap fish and chips in as well.
WE WERE happy to see that the former Anorthosis chairman Andreas Panteli was released without being charged on Thursday. After all he’d done for the club it would have been an injustice for him to be charged because a few hundred thousands euros had ended up in his bank account.
This is not the way we do things in Kyproulla. As long as the money is returned to the rightful owner, we see no point in charging the person who had taken it. This has become the unwritten law in our country which takes a more liberal view towards thieving than other societies.
A few years ago, a doctor at Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics had been caught depositing money he had received for research projects in his personal bank account. The Attorney-general at the time arranged that the good doctor returned the cash and no charges were brought against him.
Of course this practice only applies when the suspected thief is an educated, well-off person who has tried to steal a few hundred thousand euros. When it comes to impoverished thieves who steal a few hundred euros the law is merciless.
PANTELI’S arrest had one positive effect. It kept Anorthosis, ‘the Paneuropean Beacon of Liberty and Justice’ in the international news in a week when there were no Champions’ League matches, and the enlightenment campaign about the Cyprob had ground to a halt. All the foreign papers reported Panteli’s arrest, the chairman thus personally taking over his club’s noble mission as an ambassador of Famagusta abroad.
