‘Audit office budget should be submitted directly’

The audit service’s budget should not be submitted by the finance ministry, Auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides said on Thursday, noting that Cyprus had an obligation to make the service financially independent.

Speaking before the House watchdog committee, Michaelides said that was the only institutional change the audit service asked for – an outstanding obligation dating back to before the island joined the EU in 2004.

It was also a bailout adjustment programme obligation undertaken by Cyprus in 2013.

“It is an obligation stemming from the unanimous resolution of the UN General Assembly, which explained the great importance in ensuring the independence of audit services,” Michaelides said.

One of the main aspects was financial independence, he said, which was lacking due to the current procedure – the auditee, in this case the government, approving the auditor’s budget before it was submitted in parliament.

“We think the best way is for the audit-service’s budget to be submitted directly to parliament, which will have the final say,” the auditor said.

Michaelides said there had not been a reduction in funds to date but the finance ministry recently refused to second a number of officers to help with an investigation into co-ops.

Senior state attorney Demetris Lysandrou told MPs that his boss, the attorney-general, was in favour of full independence of such services, links in the chain of oversight and ensuring good administration.

Lysandrou said the Legal Service also wanted to go straight to parliament, as well as the judiciary.

 

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.