Spokesman defends AKEL ‘wage grab’

OPPOSITION DISY yesterday suggested there was a huge ethical matter regarding communist AKEL’s practice of taking the earnings of its MPs and ministers and paying them a party salary instead.

DISY said government officials should be loyal to the people, not the party, while the government retorted that this was essentially a non-issue, and part of DISY’s effort to avoid taking a stance on the bigger problems facing society.

“There is a huge matter of political ethics,” DISY spokesman Haris Georgiades said. “It is Cypriot citizens who employ state officials. All state officials are answerable to the people, from the president to the last mayor, and not AKEL’s central committee.”

It is a well-known fact that AKEL MPs give their earnings to the party – something they agree to before their election — and receive a monthly salary.

The same goes for AKEL ministers.

Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou accused DISY of bringing up non-issues in a bid to avoid taking a stance on the more serious problems.

“In many issues, like the Cyprus problem, they do not have a position. The issues raised are really non-existent,” Stefanou said.

He admitted to paying part of his salary to the party, saying it is his “pride and honour” to do so. “This shows it’s not about money,” he said.

Stefanou said the “contribution” to the party was voluntary and challenged others to do the same.

He avoided saying whether President Demetris Christofias does the same. “You need to ask the president. It is each person’s personal matter.”

But he did have a barb in store for the government’s detractors. “But it is not a personal matter when for example MPs with business interests discuss the increase in corporate tax in parliament and then vote against it,” Stefanou said.

A few years ago, AKEL ousted several former MPs from the party’s central committee after they refused to hand over their retirement bonus.

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.