THE head of the Cyprus EU presidency secretariat yesterday denied any wrongdoing in a staff hiring process and took full responsibility for the outcry that it has created.
He also suggested that a damning report by the auditor-general had adopted the approach of the newspaper that blew the whistle on the questionable appointment.
Andreas Moleskis defended the procedure before the House Watchdog Committee, as Politis, the paper that broke the story, reported – quoting two candidates – that the process had been rigged.
Moleskis however, assumed full responsibility “for the issue that was created” as a result of a procedure, which although legal, can raise questions.
Auditor-general Chrystalla Yiorkadji was asked by the government to investigate the matter after it was reported earlier this month that Athanasios Kayiaras, 28, who got the events coordinator contract in Brussels, was the boyfriend and cohabitant of Moleskis’ daughter.
Kayiaras got the job ahead of three other applicants, after submitting the lowest bid at €119,000. The other three submitted the same bid: €119,500, while the ceiling set by the state was €120,000.
Kayiaras has since resigned the around €60,000 per year job for “reasons of dignity.”
The four who had submitted a bid for the job had not been selected through an open tenders procedure but were short-listed from a pool of around 300 CVs sent by people soliciting work with the secretariat ahead of the assumption of the EU presidency in July 2012.
It later emerged that the all bidders, as well as Moleskis’ daughter Melina, knew each other.
In her report, Yiorkadji said the selection of the candidates was not in line with the law’s essential condition for “reasoned selection”.
Yiorkadji concluded that the selection procedure and the set criteria should have ensured that the successful bidder would fulfill all the necessary qualifications, experience and abilities dictated by the position’s demands.
“Since it had been decided to follow a summary process with the key criterion being the lowest bid, then the selection should have been done in a manner in which all who were selected would meet all the criteria laid out,” Yiorkadji said.
Voicing his disagreement with the auditor-general’s findings, Moleskis, who was reading from prepared text, suggested she had “adopted the approach of a particular publication (Politis), which exaggerated the role and authority of the specific position to create impressions and maybe not only that.”
The comment sparked the ire of Yiorkadjis who described it as “unacceptable” and “inappropriate”.
The matter was settled when Moleskis withdrew the offending comment.
The embattled head of the secretariat assured MPs that he had no involvement whatsoever in the evaluation of the candidates.
“The evaluation has always been done by the Evaluation Committees without any intervention from me,” Moleskis said.
Citing a comment made by Yiorkadjis in her report that when summary procedures are implemented transparency and equal treatment are not actually observed, Moleskis said any decision risks being misunderstood or misinterpreted.
“A risk we all ought to assume in order to achieve our goals in the limited time we have,” he said. “For this reason I assume full responsibility for the issue that was created”.
He said the procedures followed – in line with the law – allow for questions to be raised “from the moment people who are related or are simply acquainted to members of staff or me personally, participate”.
Moleskis said only three out of the 300 CVs fulfilled all the criteria, including Kayiaras, but no one had any experience in operations or logistics management, which was considered an advantage.
Seeing that only three met the criteria, Moleskis said he suggested two more people – in line with regulations on summary procedures – whose abilities and personality he knew and who met the terms of reference.
Four submitted their bids while the fifth said he was not interested.
“Regarding whether some or all are acquainted or whether the head of the secretariat knows some of them, this in my opinion – as explained to us repeatedly by officials from the accountant general – is not reprehensible, provided that the procedures stipulated by the law are followed,” Moleskis said.
EDEK MP Roula Mavronicola said it is obvious that the rules of good governance and meritocracy have been violated in the provocative and brutal in terms of recruitment by the Secretariat. She added that the Auditor General’s report shows that the facts speak for themselves and it is time for the government to make the necessary decisions.
MPs present at the session had a large number of other questions for Moleskis, who will have to reply when the committee re-convenes next week.
