WITH the fate of the mammoth deal between CyTA and LTV hanging in the balance, the dispute yesterday veered even more towards politicking, threatening to cloud the real issues at stake – competition in the telecom industry.
Opposition party DISY claims that the Tassos Papadopoulos law office played a part in the listing of LTV’s shares in Greece and Cyprus, and wondered whether the office had a hand in the contentious agreement.
The law office yesterday rebutted the allegations, calling them “unashamed lies and salacious slander.”
“The fact that our office audited the listing of LTV’s shares in the past in no way implicates us in the agreement under question,” read an announcement released by Papadopoulos and Associates yesterday.
DISY deputy Antonis Karras, who also chairs the House Watchdog Committee, undertook to spearhead the accusations of graft against the Papadopoulos administration.
“When the government heard that Mrs Cherie Blair was representing the Orams couple, they were beating their breasts, saying this was improper and a conflict of interest.
“Now they are attacking us for worrying about the same thing. Why the double standards?” mused Karras.
“In our opinion, CyTA exceeded and/or abused its powers in concluding the agreement with LTV without seeking the government’s approval first,” he added.
During a news conference earlier in the week, Karras had posed a series of questions about the deal: Was it a coincidence that the advertising agency belonging to Commerce Minister George Lillikas took charge of the advertising campaign for CyTA? Did President Papadopoulos meet with senior CyTA and LTV executives at his house before the signing of the contract? How was it possible for a public-utilities organisation to play hide-and-seek when concluding such agreements?
But AKEL deputy Aristophanes Georgiou yesterday hit back, questioning Karras’ motives.
“Why did Mr Karras not raise these questions during the session of the House Watchdog Committee? He waited until after it was over, and then called a news conference to make his allegations.”
According to Georgiou, AKEL had not yet finalised its stance, but “at first sight it seems that CyTA did nothing wrong.”
Coalition partners AKEL and DIKO appear to be in favour of the deal, which can only be blocked by parliament during the next plenum this coming week. If parliament gives the thumbs-up to CyTA’s budget by a simple majority, this would give the green light for the deal to proceed.
But CyTA would need to overcome one last hurdle – the the Competition Commission.
Assuming the CC finds that the deal places barriers to private telecom operators, it could declare it null and void or suspend it – at least in theory.
The feud between CyTA and the CC dates back to the liberalisation of the telecom industry some three years ago, but the powerful state giant is not exactly in awe of regulatory authorities.
Last year, CyTA flatly ignored a court order for it to raise its mobile rates after private operators Areeba complained they were being priced out of the market.
The controversy surrounding the deal has re-ignited the debate over the status of semi-government organisations. DISY would like to see some SGOs partially privatised, but their proposals have been dismissed as ultra-liberal by AKEL and DIKO, who have sworn “never to sell off the national wealth.”
DIKO alternate chairman Nikos Cleanthous yesterday equated DISY with big business, saying the opposition party was promoting “private interests” in attempting to block the deal.
“They want to run the SGOs into the ground, but we won’t let them. These organisations are there to serve the public interest,” declared Cleanthous.
