Intense confrontational atmosphere with controversies in high tones and accusations for pre-election expediencies, prevailed during today's meeting of the Parliamentary Audit Committee where the Cyprus Investment Program was discussed on the basis of the Auditor General's report on the investment of the Interior Minister in Ayia Napos Nouri, of the General Prosecutor George Savvidis and the Auditor General Odysseas Michailidis.
The controversial climate concerned the confrontations of the Auditor General with both the Attorney General and the Minister of Interior, the last two with MPs and mainly with the President of DIKO Nikolas, but also MPs of the ruling party with MPs of the opposition.
Initially, at the meeting, the Auditor General Odysseas Michailidis referred to the 5 persons of the Ayia Napa Marina who were naturalized according to the Program without meeting the criteria as they had no income in the Republic, they were not managers in the company. As Mr. Michailidis said, the five persons applied on April 19, 2019, May 10, 13 and 16, 2019, and had not completed the 6 months needed to be eligible to join the program.
Mr. Michailidis said that the Ministry of Interior asked their law firm, which was the Law Office Nikos Anastasiadis, to send them certificates for the 5 persons on 25/10/2019 and the answer came on 4/6/2020. The decision of the Minister to issue passports to these five persons was taken on August 21, 2020.
The Minister of Interior, taking the floor, then said that the Ministry, in order to examine the pending applications, amounting to a total of 221, had at its disposal the opinion of the then Attorney General. Of these, 8 were filed in 2018 (3 concerned investors and 5 family members), 208 in 2019 (86 investors and 26 family members), and 5 in 2020 (3 concerned investors and 2 family members).
As he explained, the last five that concerned the Casino and the Auditor General spoke were as follows: One on 8/1/20, two on 24/1 (20 and another two on 13/2/20, and met the criterion 6 months after they had filed 6 months before the Ministry of Passage on August 18, 2020. He added that the applications were fully completed and the only thing missing was the Certificate of Directors, which belonged to the Ministry of Finance and could be retrieved electronically. through the website of the Registrar of Companies.
Mr. Nouris said that strictly speaking, the specific five people did not fully meet the financial criteria, as announced by the Ministry of Finance. However, the Ministry of Finance favored naturalization for reasons of public interest as it considered that the investment of the Ayia Napa Marina would bring great economic benefits that would compensate for the fact that at that time the financial criteria were not met by the five.
He said the government had followed the same approach as Casino and Wargaming, adding that some were now arguing that investors should not have been given passports because they lacked a certificate of directors or that the financial criteria were not being met at the time. shows the intention of those in control. He also said that the Government, at a time when the process of examining the applications was delayed due to the progress of the investigation by the investigative committee and the police, had to proceed to complete the program and send the message to the Commission that there was no reason to continue the infringement procedure.
Mr. Nouris said that the Ministry has done its job and will continue to do so to complete the examination of the application files, which amount to 1.099, of which 619 are investors and 480 family members.
The Attorney General in his own intervention in the Commission, initially said that it is not wise and appropriate for the institution of the Attorney General and the Auditor General to be involved in the election campaign and noted that some people come out and make statements that offend, defame and humiliate them. institutions only hurt in our place.
Making an appeal to leave the Legal Service out of pre-election expediency, Mr. Savvidis said that the Service has an explicit exception and is not subject to parliamentary scrutiny, however his own presence there demonstrates his respect for the House of Representatives.
He noted, however, that for the disputes in the opinions of the Attorney General, there are constitutional procedures, through courts, that we must follow, and added that this also concerns the Auditor General Odysseas Michailidis.
Addressing Mr. Michailidis, George Savvidis said that from the moment the Attorney General changed and assumed this position, the Auditor started a process of complete denial, and together with other associates in the Service began to "parade on television" and to dismiss the Attorney General. "You said that you respect the Attorney General. "You are limited to words but you never really did it," he said.
Mr. Savvidis also said that public debates like today should not take place as there is an ongoing process in violation of the European Commission, noting that the Commission itself did not accept, for this very reason, to discuss the issue before a committee. of the European Parliament.
Subsequently, the controversy developed between the President of DIKO and the Attorney General when the former asked a question on the issue of the reasonable period of 6 months for the decision of the Minister for naturalizations. Mr. Papadopoulos asked when the reasonable time begins, from the moment the data is submitted or from the moment the application is submitted, with Mr. Savvidis referring to his opinion. On this basis, the reasonable time is decided by the body that receives it and is judged by the Court.
At Mr. Papadopoulos' insistence that Mr. Savvidis give a clearer answer to his question, the Prosecutor regretted that there is no basic respect for the Legal Service and the institutions, saying that the President of DIKO wants to involve in his election campaign the Legal service. "I do not allow you to say that because I have become a Minister of the Government, I am not properly exercising my duties as Attorney General," said Mr. Savvidis.
DISY MP Annita Dimitriou later became part of the controversy, saying that it could not be allowed to be understood by the President of DIKO that the Attorney General was misleading the Parliament. This, as he said, offends this independent institution.
In statements after the Commission, the Minister of Interior said that in the face of one of the three largest developments promoted in Cyprus, an attempt to demonize investors with alien party interests for purely pre-election purposes is being shown with incredible study, something that was clearly visible.
Mr. Nouris said that as a Ministry they answered all the common questions of the Auditor General and the President of DIKO, citing data and numbers. "I do not aspire to convince the questioners because very simply and obviously their interest was not the issue of naturalizations but to hurt the President of the Republic in a side way", he said and noted that the Attorney General has explained the legal aspect of the issue in full detail .
Asked to comment on the position heard within the Commission by the Attorney General on the constitutional diversion of the Auditor General, and when asked whether the Government should take legal action against Odysseas Michaelides, Mr. Nouris said that this question concerns the Attorney General.
In addition to the fact that in the past it was discussed whether the Government should bring the Auditor General before the Supreme Court, the Minister said that what was heard in the Commission today was a blatant attempt to point the finger at the President of the Republic and to harm the country's interest in relation to large investments, adding that we have recently had similar behaviors and positions with the issue of the Casino.
"The country is in great need of these investments. This in no way means that naturalizations and investments should be made outside the legal procedures, this is something that is controlled, there are the competent committees ", he said, adding that the questions that were asked to be answered within the Commission, the answers that given were clear.
Source: KYPE