THE ELECTRICITY Authority (EAC) has decided against signing a memorandum of understanding with an institute operated by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), at least for the time being, although a spokesman insisted yesterday this did not mean the organisation was backing out of the idea.
The semi-government organisation had pondered investing in various HSPH institute projects dealing with the environment and public health. However, its board decided earlier this week that involvement was “currently not beneficial to the organisation,” spokesman Costas Gavrielides told the Cyprus Mail.
“That does not rule out changing our stance and signing the memorandum in the future,” stressed Gavrielides. “It’s not final.”
Gavrielides also said that press reports claiming the EAC was about to sign a deal worth a lump sum of £215,000 a year with the institute were inaccurate. He explained that, while the figure cited was approximately correct, it was an estimate based on the cost of a number of projects.
“But each project would have to be approved separately by the board,” he added.
The entire cost of the HSPH institute, specialising in environmental and health research, will be borne by Cypriot taxpayers, who will pay $34 million for its first 10 years of operation, after which it is expected to become self-financing.
The government is also set to foot the bill for the construction of the premises – adding another $21 million.
No sooner had the deal with the prestigious Harvard University been announced last year than it became mired in controversy. The way the government has managed the deal has raised serious doubts about the project. The matter was handled by the Minister of Commerce, George Lillikas, whose relative is a lecturer at the School of Public Health and helped broker the deal.
Critics also wondered whether the Harvard School would input anything beyond its name and know-how.
The cash-strapped government now needs to raise the money to fund the institute. Semi-government organisations, whose coffers have been raided several times in the past, are a prime target.
Millions of pounds from the surplus capital of both the EAC and CyTA have been ransacked by the government in a bid to plug the public deficit. And even though both organisations are hugely profitable, a report by the Auditor-general last year said this practice really represented a stealth tax on consumers and was illegal under the regulations of the two bodies.
The president of the EAC’s board George Georgiades also happens to be the appointed head of the HSPH institute. Because of this dual role, Georgiades did not attend the EAC board meeting to discuss the institute issue, in order to avoid conflict of interest.
