Tepak suspect turns on colleagues

Rozita Pavlidou, the primary suspect in the case concerning the alleged misappropriation of around €5 million in EU-funds for research programmes at the technical university (Tepak) and the Oceanography Centre of the University of Cyprus (UCy) claimed that the brains behind the plot is not her but the person who reported the case to the police, it was reported on Friday.
Pavlidou – who faces charges along with six other suspects – gave a new testimony on Monday admitting to her involvement but refuting claims that she was the instigator.
The case concerns 23 EU co-funded programmes between 2008 and 2015. Pavlidou is a former employee of Tepak who managed the research programmes in question. She is believed to have abused her position to force professors to hire her relatives and threaten them if they posed any objections. The hearing at Limassol criminal court was adjourned on Wednesday until December 15 after a new charge sheet for the seven suspects was submitted to court which raised the count to 436 from 306.
According to the daily Politis, in her new testimony Pavlidou implicates Tepak assistant professor Antonis Theocharous, who is a prosecution witness in the case, and the person who reported the crimes last August, as the masterminds.
In her testimony, the first page of which was published by daily newspaper Politis, Pavlidou expressed remorse for her actions and for involving her children in these cases without their consent and her expressed willingness to fully cooperate.
She also pointed the finger at high ranking administrative officials at Tepak who she claimed turned a blind eye to Theocharous’ actions.
Pavlidou reportedly claimed that it was Theocharous – who was in charge of three research programmes, – Increasing Knowledge Transfer and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (IKTIMED), Para – Mare and Ermis – who had asked her to sign for payments made to so-called external associates for their alleged services.
She claimed that these programmes due to lack of control by the university, were not properly implemented and said people got paid for doing absolutely nothing.
Theocharous, according to Politis, was reported by Pavlidou as assigning projects of the research programmes his friends. She said that the professor had given her authorisation to make the payments and that she didn’t personally know all the people she paid.
She also refuted claims that she had forced Theocharous to buy her an expensive laptop with funds from the Para-Mare tourism programme. She reportedly said that, on the contrary, Theocharous was the one to suggest this as it was to be used for the needs of the research programme and that he was more than willing to satisfy her demand.
However Sigmalive published emails it said Pavlidou sent to one of her associates, in one of which she is asking about the laptop.
“But have you forgotten already or are you trying to buy time? (smiley face) I am talking about the laptop I want to buy. Have you learned anything? To know how to proceed,” the email said.
Pavlidou said that both her children participated in IKTIMED – and reportedly admitted to forcing one of her sons to sign a document for his alleged services to the project.
Politis said in 2011, 12 people were hired on contract for Pare – Mare who did not produce any work, wasting €107,200 of the project’s €173,000 initial budget.
Theocharous allegedly secured an additional €100,000 in 2013 for the same project from the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, and €60,000 from Tepak for the creation of a maritime tourism portal, which was never delivered. Three years later, and after the project deadline expired, Theocharous allegedly secured an additional €42,000 following the approval of the university’s internal auditor who, in a report justifying the additional funding, blamed Pavlidou’s son, Iacovos, for failure to complete the research programme. Pavlidou said that the auditor – who did not ask her son for his side of the story – had conspired with Theocharous to help him secure the additional funding.
As the deadline to draw the funds was close to its expiration and there was no time to announce a tender for the creation of the portal, Politis said, Theocharous allegedly suggested breaking down the €42,000 and giving it to 20 alleged external associates for their services to the project, so that they could that way collect that money to pay for the portal.
Pavlidou gave the names of some of these people who received the cheques, Politis said, among them the elderly parents of another Tepak professor who is also suspect in the case. The cheques were cashed in by other people involved in the case, the daily said.
Police would not comment on the case as investigations are ongoing.

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.