The nepotism that intensifies over the years, as well as the servants of the "sacred purpose" who built careers and who for decades were screwed into the chairs of the State, climbing the stairs, are some of the serious wounds that created the current crisis in the issue. to ascertain the fate of the missing.
Look for the money!
In last Sunday's report, the newspaper KATHIMERINI referred to a person who worked on the exhumation program and who contacted the newspaper, denouncing the ill-wishers and the various mazaragas who found out for themselves and who at the end of our conversation said: the money ”(look for the money).
We did look for the money and found the black holes, as well as some of the people who created them. The sources of money are twofold: the 11 donor countries and the EU. which to date have donated about $ 12 million to the exhumation and identification program and the government, which in addition to the official contribution of the Republic of Cyprus, helps the program through "special funds" of the President with hundreds of thousands of euros.
All money is managed by the CMP. The CMP of non-transparency is the UN representative, Christoph Girond, the representative of the Turkish Cypriot side, Gulden Plumer Kucuk, and the representative of the Greek Cypriot side until November, Elias Georgiadis. The former AKEL MP, Aristos Aristotelous, took his place on Monday.
"KATHIMERINI" has repeatedly complained that for the 12 million dollars that have flowed into the CMP for seven years (2005-2011), there is no accountability. Specifically, only the balance sheet for 2008 has been posted on the CMP website. Although the complaint is very serious, the CMP was not honored to issue any announcement, not even about the price of the weapons.
For the "special funds" that are transferred to the CMP by the President, an audit is carried out, as he said when the Presidential Commissioner, George Iakovou, was asked about it on Wednesday, in the Parliament, by the financial director of the President, Takis Christodoulou.
After the intervention of the Parliament in the issue, "KATHIMERINI" will give a relevant credit of time to the state services in order to inform at least the competent Parliamentary Committee for the "special funds" that are transferred to the CMP and then we will publish the data we have in our mood.
At the same time, "KATHIMERINI" states that it is willing to submit the specific data to the Office of the Auditor General of the Republic to determine whether the disposal of public money was necessary at a time when there is complete opacity to manage the millions of dollars flowing into the CMP.
Recruitment and nepotism
On Wednesday in Parliament, when it was said that since May 2011 no samples of relics were sent to the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics by the Anthropological Laboratory of the CMP, Presidential Commissioner George Iakovou said that there is a shortage of staff and noted that today there are 6 T / Cs. and 3 E / k, while the relics that must be prepared exceed 500. The reality is that an E / k anthropologist exists in the Laboratory today.
The other two people are an unskilled worker and a cleaner. It is typical the case of a scientist with a specialty and a doctorate, six years of experience who teaches in two universities abroad and who was interested in working in the program, mainly for the enrichment of experiences but also to offer in his homeland.
He was hired by the program as unskilled staff and worked for many months, hoping to get the right grade and upgrade. As it turned out, the qualifications and academic titles he had were more than those of the then head of the Laboratory, which was one of the "mothers" for this and was not used until he left.
For the recruitments in the exhumations and in the Laboratory, from E / k side was responsible for all the previous years the E / C Representative in CMP, Elias Georgiadis, who was forced to resign in November 2011 and his position was filled last Monday by the former AKEL MP, Aristo Aristotelous.
With a simple check on the part of the program that Mr. Georgiadis tied and untied, one discovers three or four family members. The condition was simple: obedience and silence. There are also people who, while they should be working in the field, sit in the offices with doctors' papers…
In addition, a specialist with whom we contacted and who knows the program of exhumations and identifications in Cyprus and how similar programs work abroad, pointed out that a Laboratory such as the Anthropology at Nicosia Airport, which is one of the largest in the world, is not allowed in 11 years of operating with such large gaps, which he listed:
1. Absence of leadership
2. Complete lack of team spirit
3. Lack of organization
4. Absence of staff evaluation
5. Lack of proper structure
6. Absence of job distribution
All the above, underlined the expert, created the quagmire in which the Laboratory has fallen today, which has ruined the entire identification program. And a parallel issue that arises at the same time is that all this clumsy management has as a result the waste of resources, he concluded.
The latest developments
Following the developments of the past week, one would expect that the third member of the CMP, Christoph Girond, who had set a schedule by Friday (30/03/2012), at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (ING) for immediate signature of the new contract as proposed by the CMP for the identification of the remains of the missing, after receiving the positive response of the Institute, would proceed to the signing of the contract or at least the announcement of the positive response that everyone expected, including the President of the Republic.
Instead, Mr. Girond contacted ING on Friday, setting new terms out of contract. "KATHIMERINI" contacted Aristos Aristotelous, who was appointed last Monday to the position of E / k member of the CMP for clarifications.
We have been told that the Commission will probably meet next Tuesday, because as it is aware from the communication it had with Mr. Girond, there are also issues outside the contract that need to be resolved in order for the CMP to proceed with its signing.
Mr. Aristotle, who told us that he is still in the information stage, added that he intends to contribute to the relaxation of the climate so that more mature thoughts can be made and sober decisions can be made.
It is worth noting that the most important issue that caused from the beginning the reluctance of ING to accept the new contract was the requirement of the CMP to be given the DNA Database created in ING.
This term prevented the Institute from signing the agreement, because DNA is the most confidential personal data of every person and ING is bound by Consent Forms that it signed with the 7.000 or more relatives of missing persons who provided DNA samples.
This issue is a mine ready to explode in the hands of the government, which with a decision of the Minister on January 5 concluded that it will take over the Database of Genetic Material of Missing Relatives from ING and will give it to the CMP and those relatives who disagree to do written requests to have their DNA samples returned to them!
But in order to give the DNA Database to the government or the CMP, the government must secure immunity for ING from all kinds of lawsuits that may be brought against it by relatives of missing persons who may disagree with the return of their personal data elsewhere. .
This extremely delicate and important aspect of the issue has been brought before the Advocate General, who, although almost two months have not yet passed an opinion and the difficulty is obvious, because the Republic of Cyprus will not have, according to valid legal sources, any chance of winning any case brought before a court in Cyprus or abroad.
As things stand, the program of exhumation and identification of the missing of the Cyprus Tragedy will take many months to consolidate and begin to bear fruit. Finally, it is proved once again that the interests, the rusfetti and the expediencies, in this place have neither sacred nor holy.
Source: KATHIMERINI