TWO legislative proposals reinstating auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides’ right to conduct administrative audits at the Co-operative Central Bank, which he had been stripped of earlier this month due to what opposition parties Akel and Diko described as an accidental vote, will be discussed in next week’s plenum, it was decided on Friday.
According to a legislative proposal tabled by Disy leader Averof Neophytou, Michaelides would be completely shut out of the CCB, the argument being that auditing by the Audit Service is redundant, and that it should be allowed to operate in the same conditions as other – privately owned – commercial banks in Cyprus, which aren’t subject to additional audits other than the European Central Bank’s.
The controversy surrounding Neophytou’s contentious proposal triggered a compromise solution to be tabled by Akel, according to which Michaelides would be precluded from conducting financial audits but would retain the right to conduct administrative ones at the CCB, on the basis that the lender is 99-per-cent state-owned.
The ‘accidental vote’ came when, following heated debate at parliament, the deputies of Akel and Diko, who opposed Neophytou’s sweeping removal of the auditor-general’s powers, thought they were voting in favour of Akel’s watered-down proposal but actually passed Neophytou’s bill into law.
When the mistake was revealed, they were denied the chance to recast their vote by House Speaker Demetris Syllouris, who cited parliamentary regulations.
Akel and Diko thus tabled another amendment, this one repealing Neophytou’s proposal, which became law in the meantime, and reinstating Michaelides’ right to conduct administrative audits at the CCB.
A second amendment, proposed by the Citizens’ Alliance, aiming at further diluting the auditor-general’s auditing powers over the CCB’s banking operations involving personal data.
Syllouris said the two bills must be handled carefully, because parliament’s regulation, which does not allow for the amendment of laws not yet published in the government’s gazette, should not be disobeyed.
Neophytou, chair of the House Finance committee, said he would add the two bills on the committee’s agenda for discussion on Monday, noting that nobody wants to take away the auditor-general’s right to auditing.
Akel MP Yiorgos Loukaides said the proposal his party tabled jointly with Diko repeals the law voted in error.
Addressing the regulatory catch-22, which may preclude voting to correct an original wrong vote, said this was not an instance that happens often.
“There has been a mistake in voting, following tensions and confusion, it was obviously a mistake, and it is now up to parliament to correct the mistake,” he said.
Diko leader Nicolas Papadopoulos said other parliaments allow for the recasting of a vote cast in error.
“The Akel-Diko proposal involves the correction of a technical mistake,” he said.
“Diko owns up to its share of responsibility.”
