AS USUALLY happens in this country, nobody gave a minute’s thought to the substance of the Andreas Moleskis case. Nobody examined the causes that give rise to such arrogant and provocative behaviour.
This story is not like any that preceded it. It is not the normal case, in which someone uses the power he wields thanks to his senior public post, to ensure that a relative or friend is given a state job. In the Moleskis case, a complex, conspiratorial scheme was set up and put into practice.
A sting was set up, featuring carefully selected applicants, all of whom were friends or acquaintances of the Moleskis clan, the ultimate goal of which was to give the contract to the daughter’s boyfriend. She was also the beneficiary of suspected nepotism, landing an EU presidency-related job with the finance ministry. Then there was the complicity of all who had participated in the procedure.
The big question is, ‘what made the head of the EU presidency secretariat and his accomplices, think they could pull of such an audacious stunt?’ Why were they so sure they could get away with it? They could not have been so stupid to think that such a crude scam would have gone unnoticed.
Perhaps I should put the question differently. Would Moleskis and his helpers have done this if they were not counting on having the protection of the president? Certainly not. They staged the sting because they had in mind the behaviour of President Christofias in previous cases of suspected corruption.
They must have thought: ‘As he offered protection to his friend, deputy Attorney General Akis Papasavvas in the tooth implants case, he should offer us protection as well. We are his friends as well.’ I am certain that Moleskis would have expected a statement of support from the president as soon the story was made public.
He had every right to expect Christofias to utter a statement similar to the one he made in the Papasavvas case. “It has become fashionable in Cyprus, when someone has a grudge against someone, to try to destroy him. I do not agree with these methods of destroying people. In the past they tried to destroy my friend Papasavvas. Now they are targeting my friend Moleskis.”
Moleskis would have been perfectly justified to expect this type of reaction from the president and he is entitled feel aggrieved because he was not offered the same support as Papasavvas. In the end he had to tender his resignation, not because he was forced to do so by the president but because the reaction was so strong that he could not be kept in his post.
If the president really objected to what had happened he would asked for the resignations of those who were in charge of the recruitment procedure and made the decision to whom to award the contract. They are still in their positions, as if they had done nothing wrong. Moleskis’ assistant and the three ladies who legitimised the scam have suffered no consequence. They were not even censured, the president maintaining his silence.
On August 27, 2003 Christofias made a grave admission. In Cyprus “institutions were in a deep crisis”, he announced and called on everyone to “take part in a campaign to repair our institutions”. And as nobody heeded his impassioned plea back then, he undertook the noble campaign to repair the institutions singlehandedly, once he was elected president.
Moleskis and Papasavvas, incidentally both friends of the president, are prime examples of the success of the campaign. AKEL chief Andros Kyprianou appears also to be helping out the campaign. All he said about the Moleskis affair, was that “DISY has no right to speak” about it. That settled the moral issue.
In truth, under the rule of Christofias, the institutions have collapsed but the tree of corruption has blossomed like never before, producing an over-abundance of scandals. This could be because it is being cared for by the president himself.
