A PARLIAMENTARY discussion on the reasons behind the collapse of the roof at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre yesterday failed to shed light on the issue.
The reason was because there was still an on-going investigation into the matter, which limited what the parliamentary guests could or couldn’t say.
Former Nicosia Mayors Lellos Demetriades and Michalakis Zambelas were among those invited to the joint meeting by the House Education and Watchdog Committees, and both were very careful with what they told deputies, even after incessant questioning.
Zambelas submitted his police statements to the committees but refrained from commenting further.
The only hint emerged when deputy Nicosia mayor Stelios Ieronimides, who also worked with the two previous mayors, let slip that there was probably no static survey for THOK’s roof while the theatre’s renovation was being planned.
Ieronimides said the Nicosia Municipal Council had never been informed on “anything regarding the roof”, adding that there was only written correspondence between the municipality and the construction’s surveyor on how to renovate the roof.
Education Minister Andreas Demetriou, whose ministry is in charge of the National Theatre THOK, which was housed at the theatre, said the Investigative Committee was expected to announce its conclusions in mid January.
“Anything more said on the issue would be pointless,” he told reporters after the meeting.
DISY’s Nicos Tornaritis, who chairs the Education Committee, explained that the main aim of getting to the bottom of the “tragic event” was to pave the way for better handling of public tenders and an improvement of safety regulations in public buildings in order to avert similar incidents in the future.
The theatre’s roof collapsed back in June. Miraculously, it was closed on the night, and no one was hurt in the accident, which crushed almost the entire seating area. Twenty-four hours later, the theatre was booked to host hundreds of schoolchildren for an end-of-year performance.
Speaking after the meeting, the Chairman of the Watchdog Committee, Costas Constantinou of DISY, said it was too soon to reach any safe conclusions.
“This is an issue that concerns the Investigative Committee,” he said, adding that his committee would continue to observe the situation and pose questions when deemed necessary.
“The issue remains open,” he continued. “It appears that a serious error has taken place, which raises issues relating to the possible mishandling and squandering of public money.”
Constantinou brushed away reporters’ indications that it was too soon to call for a parliamentary meeting on the matter. “We are not superseding the Investigation Committee’s orders; we asked to be informed and through this procedure we believe we will be given the opportunity to spot any possible issues relating to mishandling, discrepancies and non-implementation of the laws on public tenders,” said Constantinou.
A less impressed Andros Kyprianou called on the Committee Chairman to be “very careful in executing parliamentary control”, considering an investigation was underway.
The AKEL deputy added that it was “irresponsible and superficial on part of the MPs to seek to express any opinions before an examination of the issue is completed”. He therefore suggested the discussion ended there, as deputies needed to be “extremely careful” in what they said on the issue.
“In January we will have the result of the Investigative Committee’s work and then we will be able to disuses the whole issue in a much more specific manner,” Kyprianou pointed out.
