A SENIOR lawmaker yesterday accused the government of lying over its “refusal” to provide the minutes of a cabinet meeting where a decision was taken to give Eurocypria (ECA) airlines €35 million in assistance, months before it went bankrupt.
Watchdog Committee chairman, DISY’s Giorgos Georgiou said the government’s alleged refusal was a criminal offense, adding that he would take the issue up with the House President.
“After the committee was informed that no minutes had been taken during the February 4, 2010, cabinet meeting where it was decided to give ECA €35 million, we asked the cabinet secretary for a recording of the discussion,” Georgiou said.
The secretary’s reply came in the form of a letter, classified as confidential, in which he told the committee that the recording had been deleted because recording and keeping such recordings were not official practice.
The letter said recording the session was only a supplementary action to assist the minute-taker preparing the minutes, and not an official practice of documenting and archiving discussions.
Georgiou said however that everyone knew cabinet discussions were recorded and stored and minutes were taken at the same time.
He said the excuse the government gave was an attempt to hide its lies and irresponsibility.
“For us this is blatant mockery of the parliament. They told us no discussion had taken place because the matter was not on the agenda,” Georgiou said. “In other words a silent meeting took the decision for this €35 million.”
The money had been given to ECA earlier this year to save the now defunct airline.
Most was paid to banks ECA owed money to.
The government said it would have been unacceptable for the state, the sole owner of the airline, to default on its debts.
Georgiou said he would table the matter before the watchdog committee, recommending that they activate the law concerning the refusal to provide and submit documents to parliament.
The matter would then be referred to the House President who could decide to involve the attorney-general. “This is a criminal offence,” Georgiou said.
Green party MP Giorgos Perdikis said the issue must be discussed by the plenum.
“If Parliament itself cannot ensure its status … I think it is time it considers its dissolution,” Peridikis said.
ECA, now in voluntary liquidation, shut down last month, leaving 320 employees jobless.
The liquidator has said that various investors have shown interest in the company but nothing official has been made public yet.
Meanwhile, the government and the airline unions are in consultation over the staff compensation package, which the pilots initially said was unacceptable for them.
However, the liquidator will tomorrow pay the employees their notice wages – separate from the compensation — totalling around a million euros.
