CRIPPLING bureaucracy and lack of staff are costing the state millions in unpaid fines, Parliament heard yesterday.
According to data submitted to the House Watchdog Committee, the state lost over €200 million by the end of 2008 from court summons that failed to be delivered.
Furthermore, a survey by the Control and Inspection Service showed that 28.8 per cent of court summons went undelivered, which amounts to around 95,000 warrants.
The issue was raised by Aristophanis Georgiou of AKEL and George Georgiou of DISY, who warned the numbers were set to increase if something radical wasn’t done to change the system.
The Justice Ministry’s Permanent Secretary informed deputies that the ministry was in the process of evaluating a survey carried out by the police on the matter, which presents specific proposals and measures on how to improve the situation.
Two main reasons were earmarked as an initial conclusion: the bureaucratic procedures used to serve summons and the lack of staff to serve them.
Describing the Cyprus judicial system as “gangrenous”, Aristophanis Georgiou said bureaucracy and lack of staff was costing the state millions.
“We have noted problems in all the relevant state mechanisms,” he said. “We need a change in the law to reduce the number of undelivered summons. The system needs to be reformed so that the state can protect its money. This money can be used to prevent road accidents and crime.”
George Georgiou added, “Through today’s discussion it has emerged that the system is ailing and this needs to be dealt with. It also emerged that a third of criminal cases submitted to court were withdrawn as the warrants had not been delivered. So crimes are going unpunished and the state is losing tens of millions of euros in fines.”
According to data submitted by Georgiou, 31.8 per cent of court-ordered fines in the Nicosia-Morphou districts haven’t been collected. In the Larnaca-Famagusta area, 25.8 per cent weren’t collected, in Limassol 31 per cent and in Paphos 26 per cent.
DIKO’s Angelos Votsis explained that the problem expands to other areas, such as child maintenance, with a large percentage of parents not paying maintenance ordered by the courts, which leads to other social problems as well.
Committee Chairman Constantinos Constantinou of DISY said the Committee would offer the state a two-month deadline, whereby it can examine the police survey and return with specific proposals on how to amend the judicial system.
“The Committee has decided to leave the matter open and await specific suggestions and measures in two months time, when we will reconvene and see how we can fix this problem.”
