Government denies pay hike for SGO board members

By George Psyllides
The government on Saturday denied a report that it had decided to raise the remuneration of board members of semi-government organisations at an additional cost of €360,000 per year.
In its main front page story, daily Phileleftheros said the cabinet had approved a finance ministry proposal to raise SGO board members’ salaries from 2016.
The decision, according to Phileleftheros, meant an additional cost of €360,000 a year. The total cost for taxpayers will rise to €1.2mln.
Deputy government spokesman Victoras Papadopoulos denied the report.
He said the document published by the paper was a draft proposal that was never tabled before the cabinet.
However, Papadopoulos said, the cabinet had green-lighted a pay rise for the members of the hydrocarbons company because they put in many hours due to the lack of staff.
The cabinet has also authorised the finance minister to look into the SGO boards’ remunerations, Papadopoulos said.
The hydrocarbons company board members will be receiving €1,000 per month, Phileleftheros said.

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.