Culture first victim of government purge

IT SEEMS culture will be the first victim of government cutbacks, with the ambitious Cyprus Cultural Centre project yesterday thrown on the chopping block as part of efforts to tackle the global financial crisis.

According to CyBC, cabinet ministers and their permanent secretaries met yesterday at the Finance Ministry to discuss ways to freeze or cut the public sector’s operational costs and costs for non-productive projects for the remainder of 2009 and 2010.

Ministers agreed that the first large-scale project to get the axe should be the much-talked about Cultural Centre, reported the state broadcaster, arguing that it would cost up to €150m to build while EU funding would only return €80m to state coffers.

However, a recent study on the feasibility of the project states that the final cost of the project is estimated at €132.6m, of which €112.8m would be paid by EU Structural Funds.

If the project starts next year, the government can claim back €10.8m from the EU for money already spent, while money it already earmarked for the project in this year’s budget will be used to get the project on its feet, meaning the government won’t pay a cent in 2010.

If it gets put back on the shelf indefinitely, then the €15m already spent on development and operational costs will be lost, while the pledge for EU funds for the project will only exist as long as its budgetary period allows, argues the study.

According to sources, most ministers are in favour of the project but when it was put to them during yesterday’s meeting that they could either see money spent on their projects or on the Cultural Centre, unanimity was found.

The final decision rests with the President and the cabinet which will convene late next week.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.