The information requested by the Audit Service from the Ministry of the Interior, regarding the employees of the Turkish Cypriot Services Management Service and the members of the advisory committees who own Turkish Cypriot land, was provided on Tuesday morning.
The Audit Service had requested the data from the Ministry of the Interior since mid-September. However, in a letter from her that was shared with the Refugee Committee, she informed that until Friday she had not received the information and therefore the check could not begin. Therefore, the Refugee Committee registered the matter ex officio.
In its installation, a representative of the Audit Service informed that the data was delivered in the morning by the Ministry of the Interior on a USB, locked and the code will be delivered separately. He noted that the report is a work in progress but will be released after the presidential election.
With reference to the other two investigations of the Audit Service, concerning business premises in Paphos and a sample check on business premises in the other provinces, the Audit Service said that the audit has been completed and will be sent for comments, with the aim of being published by December 15.
The Director General of the Ministry of the Interior, Kostas Constantinou, responding to the delay in the delivery of the data, said that time was needed to extract the data, for the internal investigation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He also noted that they concern sensitive data, as in a previous incident where information was given to the Parliament, these were leaked, as a result of which representations were made by the Personal Data Commissioner to the Ministry of the Interior. "We had to make sure that the data could be made available," he noted. Finally, regarding the internal investigation conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the matter, the Director General said that it is internal and confidential and "we await the outcome".
For her part, the Commissioner for Personal Data, Irini Loizidou Nicolaidou noted that there was no obstacle on her part for granting the data. He noted, however, that the investigations concerning the leakage of the data to the Parliament and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are ongoing. It is quite a serious issue, he said, and "I want to believe that the necessary performances will be given so that there are no similar issues in the future".
In his statements after the conclusion of the meeting, the President of the Committee, AKEL MP, Nikos Kettiros, said that "we know why there was this delay. Because they know that some kingdoms will collapse and therefore they caused this delay so that the report would not be completed and prepared before the Presidential Election. We are not fools."
He added that this report on the activities of the service's employees and the members of the advisory committees "we will not have time to see it before the House of Representatives reopens."
Source: KYPE