Parliament to review public contracts

Parliament will review the law on public contracts with a view to amend it to prevent the mismanagement and squandering of taxpayer money.

House Ethics Committee deputy chairman Demetris Syllouris said the aim was for the review, to be done in co-operation with Frederick University, the auditor-general, the treasurer, the attorney-general, and the competition commission, to be completed in 100 days.

A lot must change in the current framework including extending it to cover semi-government organisations, and local authorities, he said.

DIKO chairman Nicolas Papadopoulos proposed to have an insurance company guaranteeing the contract.

This would mean better supervision, since the project would be evaluated by a private firm, Papadopoulos said. If it went over the budget, the additional amount would be covered by the insurance company, which would complete the project and take legal measures against the contractor later.

“We are prepared to discuss practices in place in other countries to find ways to have better administration and avoid mismanagement and fraud,” he said.

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