Auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides is investigating whether staff in the Turkish Cypriot property administration service were related to people who were granted the land.
Speaking at the House refugee committee on Tuesday, Michaelides said that in three cases where Greek and Turkish Cypriot land had been exchanged, the go-ahead had been given by female staff of the service whose husbands worked for companies that benefited from the transaction.
Specifically, there were two cases of land exchange in the Limni area, Paphos, and one in Asomatos, Limassol.
The apparent mismanagement of Turkish Cypriot properties re-emerged recently after Paphos Mayor Phedonas Phedonos went public with the names of people and companies using such properties without being eligible.
Following the 1974 Turkish invasion, properties abandoned by Turkish Cypriots in the south were, by law, put under the protection of the interior ministry, or the guardian of Turkish Cypriot properties.
Because of the need to house Greek Cypriots who were displaced from the north, it was decided to allocate such properties to them – usually for a small fee – on condition that the owners would not lose their rights
Michaelides said the need to record Turkish Cypriot properties was raised sometime in 2000, along with the first reports about mismanagement in the Mackenzie area, near Larnaca airport.
Those reports concerned cases in which people were given the land, along with loans to build restaurants, but they either failed to pay their loans, or sold the establishments, or sublet them for much higher fees.
The auditor-general told MPs the view of the Legal Service was that subletting violated the letter and spirit of the law.
“It wasn’t the intention to turn refugees into rentiers, to collect rent from land that doesn’t belong to them without doing anything,” Michaelides said.
The auditor-general said he decided to look into whether employees of the service and first-degree relatives had Turkish Cypriot property in their possession.
Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides said there was full co-operation with other authorities to bring to justice anyone proven to have broken the law.
“But that’s not the only issue,” the minister said. “It’s easy to have endless, piecemeal discussions on all matters in the auditor-general’s reports. This non-structured discussion suits everyone.”
Petrides said the administration was touching upon the institutional and legal framework for the first time, as well as policy issues governing the management of Turkish Cypriot properties.
“We have tabled specific proposals to change this policy to benefit refugees but also to restore transparency and equality,” he said. “We expect clear and explicit arguments from the parties and parliament, recognizing that it is a sensitive matter that needs universal understanding.”
