The purchase of limousines will cost around € 500.000 without the payment of any taxes, while in terms of their displacement, they will not exceed 20 horses as provided, after all, in the restrictions set by law by Parliament. It is emphasized that the decision to buy new limousines was never announced, nor was a public tender announced.
Instead, the selection was made following offers from some importers of new luxury vehicles. Due to the fact that the engines that will be carried by the limousines are diesel, the Department of Electromechanical Services in a letter sent a few days ago to Unicars Ltd, official representative of AUDI cars in Cyprus, asked, for purely precautionary reasons, be audited by an independent body.
The aim was to confirm the pollutants of the vehicles before they were received by the State, after the scandal that was recently revealed with the falsification measurement software installed by the manufacturer AUDI and not only, in millions of vehicles. Note that the new limousines will not carry the specific diesel engine in which the illegal software was installed but its latest version.
As we have been told, the purchase of new vehicles for government officials was deemed necessary, as several of the existing limousines, in addition to having frequent mechanical problems due to age, have very high maintenance and fuel costs, and are not at all environmentally friendly.
Most of the luxury vehicles currently used by ministers and other government officials are over 25 horses, while most of them, after an inspection by the Department of Electromechanical Services, were found to be in unsatisfactory condition. That is, they have a large number of kilometers, and high maintenance costs and therefore, their immediate replacement was requested.
These are the vehicles currently used by the Ministers of Education, Health, Agriculture, Finance, Justice, Trade, Interior, Transport and Defense, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Government Spokesman, the former President of the Republic, George Vassilios and the Commissioner . The latter, it should be noted, renounced the benefit of using a limousine and returned the keys to the Ministry of Finance.
M. Dimitriadis with an electric vehicle
The two electric vehicles were purchased and piloted by the Department of Electromechanical Services following instructions from the Minister of Transport, Marios Dimitriadis, in order to determine whether they are financially advantageous to the State, comparing their purchase cost with the cost of use and maintenance.
As we were told, one electric vehicle will be used by Mr. Dimitriadis for his movements within Nicosia, while the second, by the Department of Electromechanical Services.
Initially, two vehicles of hybrid technology were tested in the State, which, however, as Mr. Demitriadis informed the Parliament in a letter on 17/6/2015, was found to be unprofitable for the State.
Source: Liberal