By Angelos Anastasiou
MORE than €10m in public funds appear to have been squandered in payments to private contractors by the Nicosia Sewerage Board (SAL), Auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides said on Friday.
Speaking to reporters, Michaelides said the evidence and findings relating to all suspicious cases identified by the Audit Service’s probe into SAL’s contracts over the last ten years were forwarded to the Attorney-general’s office early last week, asking him to oversee the investigation personally due to the seriousness of the matter.
“We trust that if [the AG] handles the matter himself there will be a full investigation of the matter, which we consider serious as it relates to possible criminal offences – so this investigation merits close oversight,” Michaelides said.
He explained that the issue relates to agreements with private contractors, pointing out that the Nicosia sewerage system is three times the size of that of Paphos.
“We have examined a large number of contracts relating to a large number of contractors, mainly as far as the way these contracts were being handled by SAL technocrats are concerned,” the Auditor-general said.
“Thus far, we as the Audit Service have no evidence pointing to involvement by elected board members.”
This was in reference to the notorious Paphos sewerage board (SAPA) case, where elected local officials – such as former mayor Savvas Vergas – confessed to taking bribes by private companies in exchange for awarding them contracts.
“The picture we have so far does not show any analogies with SAPA,” Michaelides said.
With regard to the squandered amounts, he said that his service has yet to receive a breakdown on road asphalting contracts worth several millions. Michaelides added that it is impossible to know how much – if any – of these sums may be unjustifiable.
Another suspicious category, according to Michaelides, involves sums paid out to contractors after an amicable compromise was agreed. The Audit Service, he said, believes these were not justified under the clauses found in each contract.
“With regard to the above, we are certainly talking about over €10m,” the Auditor-general said.
But in the process of reviewing old contracts, Michaelides said, the Audit Service pre-emptively intervened on new ones, with a view to avoiding arrangements that could incur additional expenditure for SAL.
Following completion of the SAL probe, the Audit Service has started a comprehensive review of the Larnaca Sewerage Board.
Commenting on such phenomena, Michaelides noted that the method of commissioning public works outside of the central government is undoubtedly weak, because safeguards and internal checks are inadequate.
“The squandering of public funds could be planned and result from abuse of power, or it could be owed to the fact that non-specialised staff is asked to handle matters not in their area of expertise,” he said.
