A documented analysis of all possible options for the housing needs of the Legal Service is requested by the Audit Service, noting that if the option of constructing a new building is indeed considered to be the optimal solution, then this should be designed on the basis of the principles of sustainability, without waste and excesses and with respect to environmental legislation.
In its announcement, the Audit Service recalls that on 18.9.2023, exercising its constitutional powers, it forwarded to the Department of Public Works (PWD) a letter with its observations regarding the tendered new building of the Legal Service.
It is added that on 20.9.2023 the Attorney General accused the Auditor General with certainty that he made the letter public, and indeed that he did so to hurt the Attorney General, whom, according to his announcement, the Auditor General has put in his sights, while yesterday Tuesday, the Attorney General came back and talked about paraphilology and inaccuracies that collapsed like a paper tower, also claiming that if a building was rented, it would cost €7 million a year. He also stated that he himself will be out of service when the new building is completed and this, he said, refutes what was said about his own requests for luxuries, he added.
As noted, for the purpose of fully and correctly informing the citizens, the Service reports that its findings that the promotion of the project by signing a public contract before the preparation, submission and approval of the Environmental Study was clearly illegal and that the project, as promoted, constitutes case of excessive and wasteful planning, in violation even of the relevant decisions of the Council of Ministers concerning maximum office areas, remain undisputed.
It is added that the former Attorney General, as well as the current Attorney General as soon as he took over, without abandoning the request for the construction or purchase of a new building, had accepted that the immediate and medium-term housing needs of the Legal Service could be covered by the concession, either of the adjacent building of the Press and Information Office, or of the other three floors of the adjacent former Planning Office building, which already houses Legal Service officials, solutions which, as emphasized, are incomparably more economical.
It is reported that while the Ministry of Finance was clear that the acquisition of a new building for the Legal Service is not a priority for the Government, on 25.11.2020 the Council of Ministers decided to grant the Legal Service the land next to its existing building for the construction of new buildings, while for an unspecified reason, it was decided not to publish this decision of the Council of Ministers in the Official Gazette of the Republic. Also, in a letter from the Legal Service dated 4.12.2020 it is stated that it "secured the approval of the Council of Ministers", it therefore follows that the Decision was taken at the request of the Legal Service to the former President of the Republic, it is added.
Continuing, the Audit Service states that the excessive number of offices was a requirement of the Legal Service which coordinated with the Department of Public Works (PWD) and the other building requirements that turned out to be wasteful and excessive, while the claim that renting a building would cost €7 million per year was included in the note dated 24.1.2022 submitted by the Legal Service itself to the Ministry of Finance, adding that even with the wasteful planning for an area of 15.300 square meters (sq.m), the amount of €7 million per year will it meant a monthly rent of €38 per sq.m., a number beyond all logic that refers to extravagant and luxurious designs, as he claims.
In the announcement, it is also noted that the Ministry of Defense has been housed since 2019 together with the GEEF in a building on Strovolou Avenue with an area of about 7.150 sq.m. with a rent that was set at €11,5 per sq.m. on the ground floor and €10 per sq.m. on the remaining five floors, while even the Department of Lands and Surveys, which has been renting five floors of offices on Griva Digeni Avenue since 2017, the rent was set at €13,5 per sq.m., adding that even based on published market data , office rents in Nicosia range in 2023 between €12 and €22 per sq m, where even this upper limit of €22 concerns luxury offices in expensive locations.
The Legal Service exerted strong pressure on the TDE to complete the project before the current Attorney General's retirement date and the original plan was for the building to be completed in April 2026, the Audit Service continues, adding that this is in response to repeated statements by Attorney General that "he himself will have retired when the new building is completed", an aspect which our Service at least never highlighted.
He also notes that it is typical that, for a building with a budget of €45 million plus VAT, for which a significant amount of time would be required for the study to be prepared by the contractor and for which the TDE considered that the period of 4,5 years was the minimum possible, the Attorney General, only a few days before the announcement of the project in June 2023, demanded that the period be shortened to 3 or 3,5 years, which was rejected by the TDE.
In this way, the project would be completed at the beginning of 2027 (Mr. Savvidis retires in September 2027), the Service says, repeating that this aspect was never raised by it.
On the basis of the above, the Audit Service's position remains that for the housing needs of the Legal Service, a documented analysis of all possible options should be made, as provided for in Part XI ("Selection and Implementation of Public Investment Projects") of the Financial Responsibility and the Fiscal Framework Law (N.20(I)/2014), co-evaluating the housing needs and priorities of other Services and Ministries, and if it is indeed judged that the option of constructing a new building is the best solution for the Legal Service, then the building it should be designed based on the principles of sustainability, without waste and excess and with respect to environmental legislation, the announcement concludes.
Source: KYPE