EAC owed over €1million by customers who pay up late

THE ELECTRICITY Authority of Cyprus (EAC) is owed over €1million by customers who have been late in paying bills, according to the annual report of Auditor General Chrystalla Yiorkadji.

They are also owed €689 000 by two strategic partners, the telecommunications companies PrimeTel and CableNet, the report says.

“We’re doing what we can, within the bounds of the law, to retrieve the monies owed.” said the EAC’s Costas Gavrielides. “This is what we did five years, ten years ago and what we will do five years from now and ten years from now.”

The report also highlighted the overtime which employees of EAC are paid.

In one instance an employee was said to have been paid €30,000 in overtime alone.

This was attributed by EAC to their repair policy where technicians will be on call 24 hours a day and, once called out, do not return to their homes until the fault is fixed. “It is a small team which works in the 24-hour repair service, not the majority of employees.” commented Gavrielides “I think the public has come to recognise and appreciate the quality of the service we provide in this.”

One of the main points raised by the audit which was presented – for the year 2008 – was the delay in the construction of warehouses for the EAC in Limassol.  It was especially highlighted that the architect for the project was not dismissed sooner.  According to EAC, if he had been dismissed earlier the project would have taken even longer to be completed and been more over schedule and that his retention was a considered decision.

The EAC and one of the architects involved in the project are currently engaged in court proceedings against each other over terms of breach of contract.

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.