(Author: By Jacqueline Theodoulou )
(Date: 2008-05-30)
AN investigation into fuel prices will be ready in the next few months, the Competition Commissioner has announced.
The head of the Committee for the Protection of Competition (CPC), Costakis Christoforou, yesterday assured the media that the fuel issue was high on his committee’s list of priorities, “if not top priority”.
He was speaking after a meeting with President Demetris Christofias at the Presidential Palace, where he presented the President with the CPC’s work and pending cases.
“We have secured two self-appointed investigations, one that began in 2005 and another in January 2008, and based on the data of the 2005 investigation, but also the supplementary information kindly offered by the relevant service of the Commerce Ministry, we have taken the lead and continue to investigate,” said Christoforou, referring to fuel prices. Although no timeframes could be announced yet, he added it wasn’t expected to take more than a few months. “We will try and restrict the time needed as much as possible.”
The CPC’s list of priorities also includes basic products, such as milk, bread, wheat and building materials.
Furthermore, the Commerce Ministry’s Competition and Consumer Protection Service has already provided the CPC with the outcome of an investigation into bread prices, while more on cheese prices is expected soon.
At the same time, the Committee has around 200 complaints to investigate, which regard issues that have to do with unfair competition.
Asked to comment on the general feeling that consumers remain unprotected in the face of constant price increases, Christoforou said this was understandable. “The CPC will play its institutional role,” he promised. “It is our public duty and we will exercise it with passion. But we must not forget that a situation has been inherited that needs some time before the wounds have healed and before the lost prestige and credibility can be restored.”
Christoforou was referring to the troubles faced by the Committee over the past few months, which saw one CPC boss stand down in the summer amid claims of illegally monitoring his employees’ personal data. The resignation of his successor ensued, due to the lack of proper structuring and his admission that he could not deal with the huge workload.
Parliament recently upgraded the CPC law, improving the body’s structure, operation and authority.
“I don’t want to believe that [the CPC] has been irreparably affected,” said Christoforou. “It is a reversible situation and this is what we are trying to achieve.”
Meanwhile, the head of the Commerce Ministry’s Consumer Protection Service, Christos Malekkides, yesterday told the CyBC that information was sent to the CPC in cases where there were suspicions of fixed price lists and profiteering.
He added that bakeries were also being investigated by the Service.
“We have started for a few weeks now to observe the prices in bakeries. [On Wednesday] we had a big campaign that covered Pancyprian and local bakeries, and the data will be made public so the people can know the prices comparatively,” said Malekkides. “We will also soon start observing the prices of small and medium sized supermarkets, because they are widely used by the public,” he added.
The Service is also carrying out daily checks on things such as special offers in supermarkets, or supermarket tills to see that the prices on the shelves correspond with the tills.
“What we have sent to the CPC so far has to do with bread and fuel prices; now we are concentrating on cheeses,” said Malekkides.
“International brands such as Corn Flakes or Nescafe are also checked, and seeing Cyprus’ geographical position and how expensive it is to transport them, I think there are no excessive prices and we haven’t found any profiteering cases,” he concluded.
