THE government yesterday urged MPs to stop being populist, using parliament as a publicity vehicle for the upcoming elections as ministers and top officials refused to appear before a committee scheduled to discuss asylum seeker benefits.
Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis, his counterpart at the Ministry of Labour, Sotiroulla Charalambous, and the permanent secretaries of both ministries refused to appear before the House Watchdog Committee yesterday, saying that the issue on the agenda had been repeatedly discussed in parliament previously before the Watchdog, Institutions and Finance Committees.
Speaking at a news conference yesterday afternoon, Sylikiotis and Charalambous said the practice of parallel discussion of issues by different parliamentary committees should stop and suggested the particular matter – asylum seeker benefits – was being used by MPs to win votes in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The simultaneous discussion of the same issues by different committees “does not contribute anything of substance to the production of policy and just serves those who, betting on populism, want to turn the House of Representatives into another arena in their pre-election campaign,” Sylikiotis told reporters.
The minister said they explained their position to House President Marios Garoyian, who appeared to agree in a January 5 letter that the simultaneous discussion of related or similar issues should be avoided.
Watchdog committee chairman DISY MP Giorgos Georgiou insisted in inviting the two ministers but later settled for the permanent secretaries who responded in writing on January 7 that they too would not attend.
Sylikiotis said the committee will soon have a chance to hear from the ministries when it examines the auditor-general’s report for 2009.
The committee meeting went ahead in the end, with deputies putting questions to Auditor General Chrystalla Yiorkadji – one of two officials representing government departments — who was present.
Speaking to reporters after the session, Georgiou said the ministers should have been there irrespective of previous discussions.
“The ministers’ no-show was a wrong decision,” Georgiou said.
He said related discussions on similar issues in other parliamentary committees is an internal matter for the House and should not be used by ministers and permanent secretaries as an excuse not to attend.
Outspoken DIKO MP Zaharias Koulias came out guns blazing accusing the ministers of dealing a blow to the foundations of the country’s democratic system.
