MAIN opposition party DISY yesterday tabled a bill mandating that all citizens submit a statement of assets every seven years.

The proposed legislation is intended to complement a bill tabled by DISY recently forcing all gainfully employed persons to file tax returns, after revelations that half of the working population does not have a tax file. Currently a vast swathe of the population – those earning under €19,000 –is not required to submit tax returns.

DISY MP Averof Neophytou said the statement of assets would list all movable and immovable property, including bank deposits, bonds, shares, villas, plots of land, even valuable paintings and gold bars.

“In this way,” he said, “the state will know the real wealth which people own, exposing the tax cheats.”

Addressing privacy concerns, Neophytou said this would not be an issue since those filing a statement of assets would be obliged to procure from their bank documentation on their loans and deposits.

The statement of assets form would be submitted to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).

He said IRD would be able to cross-check the information supplied on the assets form with data held by any government agency, such as Land Registry.

It is hoped that the new regulations will weed out tax cheats. For example, if a person has declared income lower than the €19,000 per annum taxable threshold, authorities would be able to cross-check with Land Registry whether that person has purchased any immovable property during the tax period in question. That in turn would expose any discrepancies between the declared income and assets.

Neophytou said also that his party is considering drafting legislation providing for more severe penalties for tax evaders.

The state is owed about €400 million in unpaid income tax; in addition to that, authorities suspect that millions more are owed by people without tax records.

LAWMAKERS appeared unhappy yesterday with the response they received from the Central Bank to their query regarding the terms of reference of a professional services firm hired to look into what led the country's two largest banks, Bank of Cyprus and Popular, to seek state support.

Earlier this month, parties asked the Central Bank governor to submit the terms of reference in detail but reports yesterday suggested they were not happy with the response, which essentially repeated what was already said previously.

The parties are to send a second request for the details of the probe.

The CB appointed Avarez & Marsal to investigate what led the country's two largest banks to seek state support, providing “clarity and comprehension regarding the current financial stress" and guide remediation to strengthen the stability of the banking sector.”

In his October 16 reply, CB Governor Panicos Demetriades said the investigation aims to establish the conditions in which the two lenders incurred huge losses leading them to ask for state assistance.

Alvares & Marsal will look into the procedures followed in the bank’s expansion abroad through branches or subsidiary companies and the conditions under which they acquired Greek government bonds, Demetriades said.

“The findings of the investigation are expected to give direction for the necessary measures to be put in place to strengthen the stability of the banking sector,” the governor said.

The response essentially repeats what the CB has already said regarding the investigation. Cypriot bank capital shortfalls from over exposure to Greek debt and their reliance on the government for aid forced Cyprus into seeking a financial bailout from its EU partners in June.

BUS DRIVER unions yesterday gave the Nicosia bus company OSEL ten days to come up with around a million euros to plug the gap in benefit payments before going ahead with a planned strike. 

SEK and PEO unions yesterday announced that Nicosia bus drivers would carry out a work stoppage on Monday, October 29, from early morning until 10am during which time workers will meet for a general assembly to decide their next steps. 

According to the unions, the strike is being called following repeated calls for the bus company to solve a number of pending problems. 

SEK’s Charalambos Avgoustis said OSEL owes around €750,000 to the drivers’ provident fund plus roughly another €250,000 in other unpaid dues, including health insurance and the workers’ union fees that are supposed to be automatically subtracted from their salaries. 

“If the company sorts it out, either pays the full amount owed or provides an official document stipulating how they will pay the remainder we will call off the strike,” he said 

OSEL chief Iordanis Iordanou told the Cyprus Mail that the company yesterday received money owed by the state for the month of September, immediately injecting a significant sum into the provident fund to plug the gap. 

However, the sum came to €200,000, leaving another €550,000 still missing from the fund. 

“Once we get the remaining money owed to us by the state, we will pay the remainder by the end of November,” said Iordanou, adding, “We expect the unions to call off this action.” 

The bus chief said the Nicosia bus company was also at the mercy of the government’s efforts to secure a loan from the troika and refill its coffers. 

“We’re waiting to see if we can get paid, we’re waiting for the system to start running smoothly. At the moment, we’re seeing delays and cuts,” he said. 

In the meantime, Iordanou said the company was in the process of securing additional loans to pay off debts until things can be sorted out with delayed and reduced payments from the state.  

Speaking on behalf of the unions, Avgoustis said the €200,000 was not enough to call off the strike, noting that another issue they have with the company is the unilateral change of drivers’ hours and timetables without prior consultation with the unions. 

“I believe we can avoid conflict and sort things out by next week,” ahead of the October 29 strike date, said the unionist. 

In mid-September, Limassol bus drivers called off a 24-hour strike at the last minute when the Limassol bus company EMEL agreed to pay up salaries owed to 110 drivers. 

Also last month, parliament passed a supplementary budget of €21 million for public transport after government cash for this year ran out. 

The 2012 budget for public transport was reduced to €45 million from €68 million, with bus companies warning at the time that this would only cover fuel costs.

The new public transport system, up and running since the second half of 2010, has been dogged by disagreement over how much the government pays the companies.

Six bus companies were created, one for intercity routes and five for Cyprus’ districts - Paphos, Limassol, Larnaca, Nicosia and Famagusta. Each company has a ten-year contract with the state.

The government pays companies a rate per kilometre and also leases the buses which comprise the bus network. Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, Iordanou said the new bus system, was “generally going very well”. 

“We have seen an increase in passenger numbers. More people are seeking cheaper forms of transport and are using buses. We hope the mentality will change and (public transport) will become a way of life,” he said.  

THE HEAD of the Paphos Medical Association yesterday admitted that a seven-year-old girl whose sight in her left eye has been jeopardised after a state dentist accidentally sprayed her with phosphoric acid could have avoided any problem if doctors had simply washed her eye out properly.

Efstathios Efstathiou initially attempted to shift the blame from the dentist to the child. “We are talking about sensitive things, which could happen due to a sudden movement of a small child,” he said. 

But he added: “What should have been avoided was how the matter was dealt with afterwards. If the girl’s eye was simply washed thoroughly, the worst could have been avoided”. He said he would wait for the results of the hospital’s internal investigation, before seeing how to proceed, as he had not yet been informed officially.

The matter came to light after the seven-year-old girl’s father, Christodoulos Constantinou, publicised a letter he wrote to the health ministry. Constantinou said his wife had taken their daughter to a dentist at Paphos General Hospital earlier this month to repair a bad tooth. The female dentist went to show the little girl the liquid she would be using to disinfect the tooth when she accidentally sprayed the child with the caustic liquid.

But instead of dealing with the matter immediately, the hospital’s A&E department told the parents to take the girl to a private optician. He was away, and by the time they managed to locate someone else, more than two hours had passed and the damage was done. Doctors there said they found quite a large amount of phosphoric acid residue in the child’s eye, which meant it had not been washed out properly.

The girl has undergone surgery and has been taken to Israel for treatment, though she could permanently lose sight in her left eye. Attempting to justify the hospital’s inadequate response, Efstathiou state public doctors were overworked and understaffed due to the financial crisis.

Efstathiou said all this could have been avoided if a proper national health scheme was in place. “There has been no political will, from any government, to promote it,” he said.

Efstathiou expressed his support towards the family, saying he hoped she would fully recover and that her ordeal would get the ball rolling in fixing what was wrong in the public health sector.

THE DUMPING of old stocks of unworn shoes by a well-known shoe company caused havoc and confusion on Ledra Street yesterday. 

The Ecco store at the bottom of Ledra Street was getting rid of old stock, some 12 to 15 years old, by dumping it in a skip outside the store. 

When passersby caught wind of what was happening and went to pick up the old stock, to their shock and fury, they discovered all the unworn shoes had been slashed down the middle.  

One pensioner was seen picking up a few pairs for the younger folk in her family- most shoes were coloured for males coming in black and in boys’ sizes 35 to 36. 

“Shame on them. They could have given these shoes to poor boys instead of ripping them up,” said the woman who went by the name of Maria.  

However, a shop assistant explained to the Cyprus Mail that the soles of the shoes were manufactured many years ago using synthetic material known as polyurethane (PU), which in its old form is now deemed dangerous. 

It is now believed the PU used to make soles in the 1990s can pose health risks after 15 to 20 years if touched or inhaled. 

“This is why we had to slash all the shoes before dumping them,” said the shop assistant. 

Company manager for Cyprus Fiona Graham was unavailable for comment yesterday. 

Outside, passersby were still looking inside the skip for a pair of unworn shoes, even with the slash. One lady took ten pairs to send to her family in China. 

When informed of the reason for the deliberate destruction of the shoes, one man sitting at a nearby cafe said the least the company could have done was to remove the shoes discreetly, so as not to arouse the interest of the public. 

The Ecco shop assistant said they tried to explain to members of the public why the shoes were slashed, but new people kept on coming to see what was in the skip. 

She said the store planned to put a sign on the skip warning people from taking the shoes until the skip could be removed from the street this morning.  

As far back as two years ago regulatory authorities were aware of reports that commercial banks were selling financial instruments to investors without adequately explaining the risks involved, according to the minutes of a top-level meeting held at the Central Bank.

The minutes of the November 12, 2010 meeting, leaked yesterday, suggest that reports were coming in to the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and to other regulatory agencies about suspect practices by banks.

The minutes, however, also indicate that no written complaint had been lodged up until that time.

At the meeting, then SEC head Giorgos Charalambous said he had information that banks were selling investors high-risk, open-ended securities. Although there was nothing untoward regarding the actual promotion of such products, Charalambous pointed out, what did raise concern was whether the products were being sold by authorised bank staff in accordance with the MiFID (Markets in Financial Instruments) directive.

Charalambous said that banks were asking clients to sign a statement verifying that they received investment advice from their bank.

Naming the island’s two largest lenders, the SEC head said the Bank of Cyprus was offering convertible securities which listed terms and risks which should be explained to investors by authorised bank staff.

Charalambous also referred to Marfin Popular Bank and its advertising of its ‘Global Champion Deposit’ product. He argued this was not a deposit product, since it was not guaranteed for its duration, only on its expiry.

The Central Bank has ordered an investigation into whether investors were misled and/or misinformed into buying high-risk products. Parts of the probe were leaked to the media this week.

Responding in a press release yesterday, the Bank of Cyprus said it would not comment for the time being on the probe, which has yet to be officially released.

The probe was ordered after it recently transpired that the island's two largest lenders - in need of a bailout - collectively accumulated over one billion in securities but stopped paying interest on them after making significant losses in the wake of a Greek sovereign debt write-down. The banks closed access to capital, affecting some 8,000 people.

The majority of the investors claim they were deceived by the banks into investing in securities without being told the risks by an authorised professional.

A CYPRIOT doctor has led a team of researchers to a breakthrough in the engineering of new kidney tissue from a patient’s own cells that could revolutionise the field of kidney transplants and save lives.

With a worldwide shortage of kidneys for patients who need transplants, researchers have been working to find ways to engineer new kidney tissue from a patient’s own cells or another source. They’ve come a step closer with a breakthrough described in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN) study. The advance could lead to more options for individuals with kidney failure, as well as better tools for understanding kidney diseases and how to treat them. 

Cypriot doctor, Christodoulos Xinaris PhD from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, and his colleagues have now for the first time constructed “organoids” that can be integrated into a living animal and carry out kidney functions including blood filtering and molecule reabsorption. 

According to an announcement from the institute, key to their success was soaking the organoids in a solution containing molecules that promote blood vessel formation, then injecting these molecules into the recipient animals after the organoids were implanted below the kidneys. 

The organoids continued to mature and were viable for three to four weeks after implantation, it said.

“The ability to build functional renal tissue starting from suspensions of single cells represents a considerable step toward the practical goal of engineering renal tissues suitable for transplantation and offers the methodological basis for a number of investigative and therapeutic applications,” said Xinaris. For example, he said, disease-related genes could be introduced into an organoid to help researchers study the mechanisms of complex kidney diseases and to perform a preliminary screening of new drugs to treat them.

Investigators can produce tissues similar to immature kidneys from simple suspensions of embryonic kidney cells, but they have been unsuccessful as yet at growing more mature kidney tissues in the lab because the kidneys’ complicated filtering units do not form without the support of blood vessels, the institute said. 

The study’s co-authors include Valentina Benedetti, BiolSciD, Paola Rizzo, BiolSciD, Mauro Abbate, MD, Daniela Corna, Nadia Azzolini, Sara Conti, BSc, Mathieu Unbekand, PhD, Jamie A. Davies, PhD, Marina Morigi PhD, Ariela Benigni, PhD, and Giuseppe Remuzzi, MD.

FOLLOWING Moody’s, ratings agency Standard and Poor’s has also downgraded Cyprus further into junk status citing “policy inertia” due to the presidential elections and faster than expected deterioration of the banks’ domestic loan books.

S&P said it lowered its long-term sovereign credit rating on the 

Republic of Cyprus to 'B' from 'BB' while affirming its short-term sovereign credit rating at 'B'.

“The downgrade reflects our view that Cyprus' creditworthiness has deteriorated since the last downgrade on August 2, 2012, as the government has not yet negotiated a support package, while external and fiscal risks have risen,” S&P said. “We believe that electoral considerations ahead of the presidential poll … have contributed to policy inertia.”

S&P said this was in the face of a severe banking crisis, partly triggered by Cypriot banks'involvement in Greek debt restructuring in early 2012 but made worse by the deterioration in domestic lending books, and the government's fiscal inaction. 

“We see only limited progress by the government in agreeing to a critical loan programme with the troika,” S&P said.

The long-term rating remains on CreditWatch negative, where it was initially placed on Aug. 1, 2012, the agency said. Other risks cited by S&P is the short average maturity of the government’s debt stock, which weakens its liquidity.

“For financing, the government relies heavily on the same distressed domestic banks it is obligated to recapitalise, in the absence of direct European Stability Mechanism (ESM) support for Cypriot banks,” S&P said.

At the same time the real economy is being hammered by deteriorating domestic credit conditions and eroding consumer and investor confidence.

“The banks' domestic loan books are deteriorating faster than we had originally anticipated, including those of Cyprus' 90 co-operatives.”

S&P suggested that Cyprus' commercial banks--or the government itself--could be forced to reschedule their debt in order to meet the terms of an official lending programme, which could reach upwards of €15 billion. 

“It (debt) could reach 130 per cent of GDP by the end of 2013, the upper end of our July 2012 estimate,” S&P said.

The agency said the CreditWatch placement reflected its view of the potential for another downgrade if the island’s external and fiscal financing pressures escalated. 

“We see at least a one-in-two chance that we could lower the rating again if official assistance is not forthcoming. We could also lower the ratings if we believe the government is not able to fulfill the conditions of a troika programme.”

However, the ratings could “stabilise at their current levels if we see that a programme is quickly concluded and if growth prospects, government debt, and external funding needs begin to stabilise.”

FINANCE Minister Vassos Shiarly yesterday sought to put to rest talk that international lenders wanted to harm Cyprus, reminding that they would be providing the island with much-needed funds it could not get anywhere else.

“I do not believe the troika is coming here to harm the economy if this is the message some people want to give. It is not the case,” Shiarly told the state broadcaster.

To secure the cash, Cyprus must agree to certain conditions – an adjustment programme which includes measures, especially concerning the public sector, that have prompted the reaction of unions.

They are coming to finance Cyprus at a rate of 2.0 to 3.0 per cent “which we could not find any other way,” Shiarly said.

High bond yields have effectively shut Cyprus out of international markets since May 2011.

The government secured a €2.5 billion loan from Russia at the end of 2011 but the heavy losses incurred by the island’s biggest banks after the Greek debt write-down forced it to seek assistance from its EU partners in June.

The minister acknowledged that people were worried about certain conditions recommended by the troika.

“We also worry about some of the recommendations (but) all this can be resolved in a serious negotiation,” Shiarly said.

The minister said he expected talks with the lenders to start next week after the government finalises its counter-proposals over the weekend.

After dragging its feet for a couple of months, the government is now scrambling to meet a November 12 deadline or risk running out of cash.

After November 12 - the next meeting of the Eurogroup - it would take the parliaments of individual eurozone nations about six weeks to sanction the Cyprus memorandum. 

Meanwhile, Standard & Poor's on Wednesday downgraded Cyprus three notches to "B" from "BB" with a negative outlook, saying electoral considerations contributed to "policy inertia".

“It does not please us at all but it’s a fact that developments do not help the Cypriot economy,” the minister said. “We should not be surprised each time there is a negative assessment.”

It was not a chance that the opposition would miss.

“The new downgrade reflects the dire reality,” DISY spokesman Haris Georgiades said. “Cyprus’ creditworthiness has deteriorated because the government has not yet negotiated a support package while external and fiscal risks have increased.”

Georgiades said the government would now have to negotiate under suffocating timeframes brought about by its inaction.

“We hope that the government, realizing the hard reality, will eventually present the troika with a reliable and effective package,” DIKO spokesman Fotis Fotiou said.

Ruling AKEL said the downgrade had been expected but denied that the reason was the delay in striking a deal with the troika.

“As the reason for the downgrade, the agency repeats the crisis of the banking system and the possibility that the need to support it would raise the public debt to an unviable 130 per cent of GDP by the end of 2013,” AKEL spokesman Giorgos Loukaides said.

At the same time the state broadcaster reported last night that the government has modified its proposals for savings in the public sector with greater salary cutbacks. It said that salaries between €1001 and €1500 would be slashed by 6.5 per cent (instead of by 5 per cent); from €1501 to €2000 by 8.5 per cent; from €2001 to €3000 by 9.5 per cent; €3001 to €4000 by 11.5 per cent (instead of by 11 per cent); and €4000 and over by 12.5 per cent (instead of by 12 per cent). No cuts will be made to salaries under €1000.

Vassos Shiarly

THE COMMITTEE Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) was in Cyprus for the third autumn in succession in its ongoing campaign to stop illegal bird-trapping. With the help of Cyprus police, during their two-week stint, CABS members removed 4,000 lime-sticks, almost 100 mist-nets and 65 electronic lures. During these raids police arrested 16 suspected bird-trappers, the CABS co-ordinator said.

As in past years, CABS volunteers encountered threatening behaviour and some violence by locals who wanted to protect their illegal activities. Volunteers were stalked by trappers in pick-ups, attacked with metal poles and had shots fired at them during a night patrol. Two hire cars used by CABS had their tyres slashed in a hotel car park. 

A couple of years ago CABS volunteers were beaten up by trappers, who appear to be a law unto themselves in the Famagusta district. They fear neither the police nor the game wardens the latter often being the targets of intimidation and threats. This is illustrated by the fact that bird-trapping remains as widespread as it has always been. At the end of last year, conservationists estimated that a record number of migratory birds had been killed in 2011 by the poachers.

Although the authorities, in particular game wardens, have been making a big effort to combat illegal bird-trapping, they are on their own. They have no backing from society or the politicians who take an ambiguous stance, at best. Then there are all the Famagusta deputies who side with the law-breakers. 

A group of them recently tried, unsuccessfully, to have the law on bird-trapping changed – they proposed that bird trapping should not be classed as a criminal offence.

In July the House approved controversial amendments to the hunting law introducing relatively low on-the-spot fines for use and possession of audio devices to lure birds. The fine for possession of such a device is now €350, and if caught using it, a poacher is fined €500.

Under the original law, they would have had to face court fines of up to €17,000 and/or up to three years in jail. Could there have been a clearer message of support for the bird-trappers by lawmakers? 

It gets worse. In a questionnaire given to the presidential candidates by Politis, two of them – Nicos Anastasiades and Giorgos Lillikas – said they supported the de-criminalising of bird-trapping. This was a blatant vote-buying response, disregarding the international conventions Cyprus has signed. What rational politician, who sees that criminalisation of bird-trapping has proved totally ineffective, would support de-criminalisation? It shows how committed the two presidential candidates are to the elimination of bird-trapping.

This is the crux of the problem and the reason (apart from the money) why bird-trappers continue to disregard the law, attacking and threatening conservationists. When politicians and lawmakers publicly express disagreement with the law against bird-trapping, the poachers believe that they have a right to break the law. Unless we take a clear stance against this practice as a society the poachers will remain in complete control.

FOR THOSE visitors to Cyprus who want a genuine sense of the history and culture of the island - even down to the way food tasted hundreds of years ago - help is now at hand.

An organised tour, initiated by the local Cornaro Institute (founded by the Cyprus College of Art) and the Distance Learning Centre in the School of English at the University of Sheffield, will allow visitors to dig deep into Cyprus’ Medieval and Renaissance past as experts guide them through the culture, food and history of Cyprus.

The project, ‘Othello’s Island’, is planned for this coming March and the programme is open to all - tourists and locals alike - with no previous experience or knowledge of the subject is necessary.  

“While we’ll be learning about an exciting period in history we will also have plenty of fun with the subject,” says director of the Cyprus College of Art, Michael Paraskos. With the collage having founded the Cornaro Institute in 2010, it is aptly named after the last Venetian Queen of Cyprus, Caterina Cornaro. Based in Larnaca, it provides studio space for artists from around the world, while helping overseas institutions to organise study trips on the island through a variety of informal courses. 

The upcoming occasion will involve classes at the Cornaro Institute with expeditions planned to towns and villages around the island. 

The project is a collaboration between Paraskos and James Fitzmaurice, a professor within the School of English at Sheffield University specialising in literature and the works of Shakespeare. 

With Shakespeare’s Othello set in Cyprus, connections were immediately drawn, and the idea for a rather unconventional trip initiated.

“We thought it would be a nice idea to offer people the opportunity to see just how very much the history of the island has to offer. Not many people realise that there was a time lasting almost 400 years when the island was ruled by the French and Venetians. They built gothic cathedrals, vast palaces and created a culture that had an effect all over Europe including foreign art and literature,” explains Paraskos. 

“We aim to give visitors a really deep feel of the cultural history of the place. But rather than just worming through books to understand it all, this is about getting out and getting a feel of a place; its churches, its monuments, its people.” 

In addition to talks and discussions, visitors will abandon the classroom to visit past centres of action, guided by experts from leading universities in Britain and America. 

“And it’s not just about the looks of the place but the feel of the place,” emphasises Paraskos. 

So-called material culture, or the relationship between artefacts and social relations, has become quite the buzzword of late. The idea is for people to understand that what they see affects cultural attitudes and social relations. “Fitzmaurice has a real vision for people to feel what’s out there, like going to Lefkara and touching the lace to see what sensations and ideas it evokes,” says Paraskos.

With sensory phenomena coming into play, the study tour will also be placing a great deal of emphasis on the food of the island and the history behind it. While the local cuisine is often revered for the use of delicious ingredients, few are actually acquainted with the tales and traditions behind a given dish. Part of the experience will involve tasting food in a similar fashion to the way it was enjoyed hundreds of years ago. 

Then there’s a whole load of exciting trivia that the organisers wish people to become better acquainted with. 

“Who would have known that the table fork was introduced to Europe by King of Cyprus Peter II? Or that Cyprus was the main producer of sugar in Medieval Europe?” says Paraskos.

With a trip that focuses on the riches of the island’s past, visitors are now given the chance to quite literally tuck right into its colourful historical flavours.  

The occasion is also supported by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation and the Larnaca Municipality who have stepped in to lend a helping hand for this special expedition. 

‘Othello’s Island’ costs 300 pounds sterling per person including tuition, study trips and site entrance fees. Participants coming from abroad are required to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements, but help will be available from project staff. Application by 15 January 2012. Tel: +44 114 235 1538. Email: j.fitzmaurice@sheffield.ac.uk

The making of Lefkara lace will be one of the attractions of the programme

DESPITE the promise of help from the Paphos district office seven months ago, residents of a small housing development which is rapidly sliding down a hillside in Armou, say nothing has been done.

The Sunday Mail first highlighted the dire plight of the homeowners in March. 

The six houses which make up the development in the picturesque village are still moving down the hillside and are likely to collapse completely if rains are heavy this winter. One of the houses has already been deemed unfit for habitation and has been condemned.

A number of the homeowners have issued court proceedings against the developer. All of the houses, which were only built in 2004, have serious structural problems, from slanting floors, to the partial collapse of stairs, walls, swimming pools and patio areas. Outside drains are exposed in one garden and retaining walls have split. 

The estate was constructed on land locals had long been warned was unsafe.

One of the access roads to the development is currently impassable and although a second road was repaired, large cracks have again appeared.

The developer responsible for the estate is JNM, but despite repeated efforts, the Sunday Mail has been unable to contact them. 

Geoff and Maggie Higgs, owners of one of the stricken homes, were forced to leave their ‘dream home’ a few months ago as they no longer felt safe. They are currently lodging with friends in the UK. 

Only two homes are now occupied, one by Simon Phillips, his wife and two children. The Higgs’ daughter, Sian Sparrow, her husband and two children are renting a house next to theirs to keep an eye on her parents’ property. 

The Sparrows had previously been renting the house on the estate which has now been condemned.

“We moved into the initial property in April 2011, and nearly a year later during the terrible weather, we noticed massive cracks appearing in the house and the outside areas. The house was also at a noticeable slant. Everything happened so quickly, the condition of the house deteriorated massively in just a couple of weeks,” Jason Sparrow told the Sunday Mail:

The family was forced to leave the property, which was declared unfit for habitation but decided to move into another house on the estate.

“We were told by a surveyor that the current house we are renting - which is Number 5 on the estate - would be ‘the last one to go’,” Sparrow said.

Until recently, according to the couple, the property had remained relatively unaffected by the shifting land. But, they pointed out that following just two days of recent rain, cracks had appeared in the swimming pool.

Another homeowner, Graham Slyper, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease last November and is currently based in the UK .He says he had been hoping to spend the remainder of his life at his home in Armou, but he believes the likelihood of this happening now is slim.

Speaking whilst visiting his property on a trip from the UK a few weeks ago, he said: “the cracks in my house have opened up further in the last few days of rain. They were measuring about 6cms and now they are about 9cm. The pool has cracked, and I’ve got the pool people here trying to stop the water leaking out of it.” 

“It’s terrifying; we are all worried about what is happening,” said Maggie Higgs who was also on a visit from the UK. 

Permanent resident Phillips said he was particularly worried with winter approaching. “None of us are able to sleep properly and we’re fearful our homes may collapse,” he said.

“We have been told when it rains if we have a winter like last year, we could see the whole development go in a matter of hours. This is a beautiful village and a fantastic spot but it’s turned into a nightmare.”

A report by the president of Paphos’ architects and civil engineers association, Chrysostomos Italos was completed in June and has been handed over to the legal advisers of the homeowners. Italos places the blame firmly on the developer.

Italos visited the site again last week. “I inspected the entire estate and the site is moving. Something has to be done. I am waiting for the district office to take action and protect the area,” he said.

“I am very concerned that if we have a bad winter, the houses will collapse.”

Italos has suggested a number of measures which if implemented quickly could still save the development. These included a drainage system and an underground system to take away water and special supports.

“It will be very expensive and I would not suggest the owners do it, and it’s not their responsibility. The entire area needs to be made safe, not just individual houses. The developer or the government must carry out these works.”

Tragically for the residents, it appears as if the area where their houses were built, just below the church in the picturesque village, was well-known among locals as being unsafe.

“Everyone in the village knows that below the church isn’t a safe place to build. When I was a small boy, I was told to be careful of this area and not to go there in bad weather,” Armou mukhtar, Panikos Hadjitheoris previously told the Sunday Mail.

Evagoros Andreou, of the Paphos district office planning permits department has visited the housing estate and sent the developer a number of letters.

“We recently met with him and I can’t make any further comment as we are still examining the situation,” he said.

He said he and members of the geological department would visit the estate again next week. “I cannot give any further information yet as too what action we will take, but it will be in accordance with parameters indicated by the law.”

According to Italos, the district office can take a number of different steps.

“As the development has still not been signed off and is still in the developer’s name, they will be asked to verify that all the works were carried out according to the permits,” he said.

More disturbingly, the district office could even act against the homeowners, as they are living in properties which do not have certificates - even thought they are not responsible - and this is against the law, he said.

Italos offered a glimmer of hope though.

“In some other areas I know of, the district office has carried out the repairs themselves and then taken the developer to court to claim the money back. I am hoping that the district office of Paphos will do this with the developer responsible for the site in Armou.”

The homeowners pointed out that the problem is steadily worsening, with houses above the development also slipping down the hillside.

The group is understandably angry, upset and under immense stress. 

“We sold everything in England to come here for a dream life, but the reality is I’m not far away from having to tell my children that we don’t have a home. I carry that weight around with me. I don’t know what I would do if we couldn’t live here anymore,” said Phillips.

Geoff Higgs added: “ When you get to 67 years of age, you’ve worked all of your life, paid off your mortgage, sold up, come to Cyprus, been advised by lawyers, paid money for your property and it’s been snatched away from you, it’s too stressful and agonising to express.”

“If nothing is done, soon we will literally be homeless,” his wife added.

A section of the house which has now been condemned

Simon Phillips house

Geoff and Maggie Higgs, Graham Syper,Simon Phillips and daughter in front of collapsed road

THE NON-governmental organisation Future Worlds Center (FWC) yesterday called on members of the public to provide help in collecting food and clothes for families who are living in extreme poverty and in need of urgent assistance.

The families need basic food such as: rice, pasta, bulgar wheat, oil, salt, long-life milk, pulses, tinned food, and not-easily perishable vegetables and fruit like onions, potatoes and apples. They also need basic hygiene products such as nappies, sanitary pads, shampoo, toothpaste and toilet paper.

Clothes for the whole family are welcome. There is a particular need for children’s clothes, ages 3 to 18.

FWC will be able to arrange for a pick-up if a significant amount of goods is collected at one location.

“We know that these are difficult times for every one of us, but every little helps,” said the press release.

The centre’s office is open daily between 9am and 5pm and can be found at Promitheos 5 on the fifth floor, opposite Kapatae’s gallery in central Nicosia.

For further information, call 22873820 or email danae@futureworldscenter.org.  

THE US embassy in Nicosia, in an effort to make it easier to travel to the United States to work, study and visit, will begin a programme to waive in-person interviews for some applicants, it said yesterday.

Certain first-time and renewal applicants can submit their applications without reporting for an interview, though a consular officer may decide that an interview is necessary to complete the case.  

"We want to find ways to make the application process simpler," said Steve Royster, the US Consul in Nicosia, "and when we can make the decision without having to interview the applicant we can process visa applications more quickly and get travellers on their way to the US."  

First-time applicants who are under age 14 and whose parents have valid US visas, as well as first time applicants over age 79 can apply without appearing in person if they deposit or deliver an application packet to the embassy, with a return envelope with enough postage to receive their documents back in the mail. Applicants can also renew their visas if they meet certain criteria. Interested applicants should visit http://go.usa.gov/YKuR for complete details.  

Students, exchange visitors and journalists should visit http://cyprus.usembassy.gov for the documents that they must include.  

Applicants seeking to apply without appearing in person must be careful to submit a complete application packet or the embassy will have to call them for an interview.  

SCIENTISTS from nine different countries arrived in Athens on Thursday to study a collection of over 2,000 books and more than 600 atlases and maps depicting Cyprus from the 15th century until the present. 

The collected works were presented by the Sylvia Ioannou Foundation, which plans to hold biannual conferences for scientists to come and examine valuable collections of geographical history, and assist research in various topics.

To mark Cyprus taking over presidency of the EU Council, its inaugural conference - “Cyprus on the Crossroads of Travellers and Map-makers from the 15th to 20th Century” - which wrapped up yesterday was dedicated to Cyprus and Sylvia Ioannou’s precious collection. 

“Twenty-eight speakers from nine countries arrived, each representing a different science; I think it says a lot that the conference has attracted such a variety of scientists,” the foundation’s manager, Artemis Skoutari, told the Sunday Mail yesterday. 

Visitors included scientists from France, Germany, the US, the UK, Israel and Romania, as well as from Greece and Cyprus.

“There are also a lot of young people here, which means youths are showing an interest in the sciences.”

She said the foundation’s chairman announced yesterday that the foundation planned to offer three scholarships for students interested in acquiring a post graduate degree, provided it is based on Cyprus.

“It could be any subject, as long as it is related to Cyprus,” Skoutari explained, adding that this was a good opportunity to project Cyprus’ cultural heritage abroad.

The Sylvia Ioannou Foundation, which is based in Lichtenstein, is owner of a rich collection of books, maps and manuscripts on Cyprus and the Mediterranean.

The aim of its conference – held in co-operation with the University of the Aegean and the University of Cyprus’ department of history and archaeology – was to highlight “the treasure trove of historical documents devoted to Cyprus” and to study their origins and transformations. 

The collection includes travellers’ testimonies, cartographical and geographical accounts, topographical and pictorial imprints of Cyprus, dating as far back as the 15th century.

According to the foundation’s website, “The core of the collection is printed descriptions of the island, published from the very dawn of European printing, in 1475, through to 1964, when the island, for the first time in its long, and often sad, history achieved self-rule.”

While many of the items were acquired in the full glare of publicity, as a private collection, many other treasures and rarities of the collection have never been fully unveiled to the public.

The foundation has been established with the guiding principle of opening the collection to public access; a website has been established as an introduction to the many items in the collection - www.sylviaioannoufoundation.org 

Sylvia Ioannou started collecting manuscripts and rare books relating to Cyprus in the late 1970s, her aim being to salvage and preserve the island’s printed heritage.

She has acquired books on Cyprus’ archaeology, history, politics, as well as a collection of travellers’ accounts, dating from the 15th century until present.

In 2009, Sylvia established the Sylvia Ioannou Foundation to ensure that this valuable archive would now be accessible not simply to the owner but to researchers the world over.

AKEL MP Irene Charalambidou yesterday said she was shocked to hear a man who admitted to sexually assaulting a young girl had been released by police, following an intervention from an unnamed politician.

“It is with great alarm that we heard that a person who allegedly admitted to a sexual crime against a minor - where the perpetrator had a relationship of trust and was part of the victim’s family - was released from custody, when the customary procedure is to send him to court to be remanded so as to avert further contact with the victim or the victim’s family,” said Charalambidou. She said this was to avoid the risk of evidence being destroyed or the family being threatened by the suspect.

Charalambidou said her party was aware of details, which she would not release in order to protect the victim.

“We do not want to believe information that for such a serious crime, interventions were made by political persons, resulting in the necessary procedures not being followed,” she said.

“At the moment, the victim and any other minor are exposed to the perpetrator, who is moving around freely in danger of repeating the crime he allegedly admitted to,” she added. 

Charalambidou said she was expecting the police, child commissioner and all other related departments to immediately intervene.

“Society and the lawmaking authority also need to react straight away and offer further means to deal with crimes against minors,” she said. “We are repeating our plea for swift approval of the law proposal we submitted for crimes against minors and legally regulating checking mechanisms for paedophiles.”

CENTRAL BANK (CB) Governor Panicos Demetriades yesterday said that Cyprus’ debt was manageable and that the bulk of assistance from international lenders would go into recapitalising the island’s banks.

“However big the amount demanded for the banks’ recapitalisation, the country’s debt is manageable for the simple reason that the new loan we will get from our partners in Europe and the Support Mechanism and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be mainly for the banks’ recapitalisation,” said Demetriades.

He was speaking after he met with President Demetris Christofias to discuss the current state of the banking system, ahead of the lenders’ (the troika) return to the island.

It was reported on Friday that the troika - European Central Bank, European Commission and IMF - would be arriving on the island on Monday though the government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou yesterday would not confirm the date yesterday.

Demetriades called for an end to public debates on whether the state debt was viable, describing the loan from the troika as “an investment we are making as a country; as taxpaying citizens, from which we should logically get something in return too”.

But even if the returns are negative, he added, the public debt would become manageable again once the banks were privatised. 

Demetriades confirmed that Cyprus was seeking direct recapitalisation, through the new European Stability Mechanism (ESM) that was unveiled last week. The ESM, a €500 billion rescue mechanism for the 17 eurozone countries, will be used to lend to distressed eurozone sovereigns in return for strict fiscal and structural reforms, aimed at putting economies that have lost investor trust back on track.

Asked yesterday how much Cypriot banks needed, Demetriades said he could not comment on something that was under discussion at the European Central Bank’s governing council.

He pointed out that while recapitalisation was necessary, this did not automatically mean that the banking system would automatically start picking up.

But he added, “Once this procedure begins, we will enter the final leg of the journey, where we will start seeing light at the end of the tunnel”.

Demetriades said the banks needed to recover, through reforming the banking system, ring fencing Cypriot banks’ operations in Greece - “we definitely need to reduce the risk that comes from there” - and improving supervision over the island’s banks.

Demetriades said he exchanged views with Christofias in their meeting, on the state of the banking system as well as troika’s imminent return to Cyprus.

He referred to the CB’s decision to appoint an independent foreign agency to investigate what went wrong with Cyprus’s banks and led them to seek support from the state. He said the results of the investigation could be tabled at the House, if this was requested.

“We believe this investigation will help apportion the blame on those who led our banking system to this difficult situation,” said Demetriades. “The situation may be difficult, but the CB is working towards exiting this crisis as soon as possible. We do not view the troika as our enemy, but our ally, who will help solve the problems faced by the Cypriot economy today.”

In the afternoon, Demetriades relayed the CB positions on the banking system to the party leaders and presidential candidates.

Meanwhile, referring to a proposal for all co-ops to fall under the umbrella of the Central Bank, Demetriades said the matter was very delicate. “I am convinced we will conclude on a formula that will ensure the cooperative movement’s autonomy and independence, while at the same time improving supervision and essentially the cooperative movement’s credibility,” said the governor.

WHAT is it about the co-op banks and the co-op movement that cause every single politician to be overcome with cheap sentimentality? Why do the politicians become emotional and protective when referring to the co-ops, as if they were talking about children with special needs in a Radiomarathon TV show?

I would really like to know what quality of SPE Aradippou or SPE Astromeriti pulls the heart-strings of our politicians and makes their eyes water. This sentimentality was on show in the past week when the whole political establishment united to proclaim their commitment to defend the co-op banks from the evil designs of the terrible Troikans.

After Tuesday’s emotional House commerce committee meeting which decided to send a letter to the comrade and the party leaders, urging them to defend the ‘independence’ of the co-op banks, deputies paid moving tributes to the movement. 

Akel’s Costas Costa said the co-op movement, from its creation, “supported the ordinary man and his needs, supported the economy in very difficult times and kept the country standing, always with a human face and approach.”

For Disy’s Lefteris Christoforou, the co-op movement not only served “the ordinary citizen, the ordinary man and the socio-economic system but was also an example and model of sound administration.” Diko’s Angelos Votsis sent a clear message to the troublesome Troikans – “hands off the co-ops.”

The co-ops have become universal a sacred cow, but with a human face.

WE WERE a bit disappointed to hear our refreshingly insensitive Archbishop Chrys get emotional and nostalgic about the sacred cow. “The troika needs to respect the co-op movement, because if our people survived in the difficult days, that we older folk lived through, it is thanks to the co-ops,” he said, before recounting his childhood memories of of co-op virtue.

He also repeated the message, “hands off the co-ops,” that have taken the role of virgin bride that some nasty playboy was trying to seduce before the wedding. What is all the fuss about? 

The Troikans have not demanded the closure of the co-ops, their sale to big capital or the removal of their human face. All they asked for was that these people-centred agents of social good came under the direct supervision of the Central Bank because despite their human face, they operate just like banks. 

So why are our wise politicians so determined for the sacred cows of the banking sector not to come under Central Bank supervision, and have drawn a red line? Co-ops have been “models of sound administration” and should have nothing to fear.

IT IS NOT so much the supervision everyone fears. The Governor of the Central Bank Professor Panicos is a loyal Akel man who has publicly declared that co-ops were wonderful and would be very reluctant to turn the screw on them.

What everyone is terrified of is that to come under CB supervision, the co-ops’ loan portfolios and capital adequacy would have to be investigated and they fear that the movement could be in a worse mess than the commercial banks and need several billions of euro to rescue.

A perfectly reasonable hypothesis, when we consider that co-ops are controlled by Akel, to a lesser extent by Diko and the unions. We all know what happens to businesses run by the rusfeti-peddling incompetents of the party/union nomenclature and their apparatchiks. When politicians talks about the human face of co-ops, what do they mean? Is it that the co-ops do not pursue bad debts, and allow non-performing loans to pile up, without bothering with re-possessions? Do they give loans that the borrower does not have to repay, because of the lender’s human face? 

Then there are the many hundreds of millions of Cyprus government bonds that co-ops hold and cannot use as part of their capital base, because these are currently rated junk. Cyprus government bonds are not considered junk, when they are held by the co-op movement because it is a “socio-economic institution with anthropocentric orientation.”

AN INDICATION of how professionally the co-ops are run was given when the Troikans were here in July and tried to arrange a meeting with the head of the Co-operative Central Bank – Erotokritos Chlorakiotis – which is the supervisory authority for co-ops. 

Chlorakiotis, a Diko man who has been the co-op supervisor for about 20 years, said he could not meet them because he was ill; they asked to meet his second in command and he was ill as well, also suffering from troikitis. 

As soon as the Troikans left, Chlorakiotis made an immediate recovery and embarked on a brave resistance campaign against the change of the regulatory framework of co-ops, currently supervised by a committee made up of Chlorakiotis and representatives of co-op banks.

Co-op movement members have done an excellent job supervising the co-ops so why change it? Everyone knows we Kyproullans are tougher than Germans when it comes to self-regulation.

HATS OFF to the CEO of Hellenic Bank Makis Keravnos, who managed to wrangle a salary increase for himself this year, after having persuaded all his subordinates to agree to a wage freeze. 

Keravnos, who was briefly touted as a possible presidential candidate, has re-defined the principle of ‘leadership by example,’ securing himself a total pay rise of 17 per cent over this year and the next. His annual salary will rise from €295,000 to €320,000 and next year increase to €345,000. 

The greedy Makis, who was appointed Hellenic’s CEO without any experience of banking in 2005 (only in Kyproulla could this happen), demanded the pay increase, presumably citing the respectable profits recorded by the bank in the first six months of this year. Interestingly, last year’s losses of €30 million, did not result in a pay cut for the greedy CEO, who felt 295 grand a year was not an adequate reward for him.

I would love to see how he would handle the issue of pay cuts that would almost certainly be imposed on bank employees next year. Hellenic might not need a state bailout, but it has an abundance of non-performing loans both in Greece and Cyprus.

MAKIS’ pay rise is another cause for being disappointed with the Archbishop. Chrys imposed pay cuts on the clergy and has been telling his flock that everyone has to make sacrifices. How could the Church, Hellenic’s main shareholder, not only exempt Makis from making any sacrifices, but also sanction a 50 grand pay increase? 

A tough nut like Chrys should never have tolerated his CEO’s greediness, which apart from being provocative, is un-Christian. 

On a more positive note, with 25 extra grand in his pocket Makis will now be able to afford a more expensive hair-dye than the carrot colour he has been using on the little hair he has left. He might even be able to pay for the services of a professional hair colourist now.

PERMANENT Rep at the UN Nicos Emiliou has put in a request to the foreign ministry to pay the school fees of his partner’s son, now that he is in New York. Although the foreign ministry recommended that Emiliou was given the 23 grand he was demanding, the Public Administration and Personnel department turned it down because he was not eligible for it. 

According to the government regulations the state pays school fees only for its diplomatic personnel’s children. Emiliou has now lodged a complaint with the ombudswoman, arguing that an exception should have been made for him. If he still fails to get the money from the taxpayer, our establishment will organise a money-raising campaign, because we cannot have a top diplomat paying for the education of his partner’s kid out of his own pocket. It is an outrage.

LAST SUNDAY the three main presidential candidates were given a questionnaire on social issues, by Politis, and asked to give ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers. 

Akel’s young, socially sensitive candidate Stavros Malas turned out the biggest reactionary of the three, opposing the legalisation of abortion (it must be illegal), prostitution, marijuana and the legal recognition of gay partnerships. It beggars belief that a self-proclaimed progressive party like Akel back such a reactionary?

The Disy Fuhrer, on the other hand, turned out the most liberal of the lot, even saying ‘yes’ to the legalisation of marijuana, but ‘under conditions’. He has won the dope smokers’ vote, but gave ammunition to boring, puritanical commie youths to attack him.

“It is immoral to hear a party leader.... to claim that decriminalisation of marijuana would help users,” said Akel youth wing EDON in a statement accusing cool-dude Nik of wanting “half-stoned youth, with heads bowed, who would allow him to impose his anti-popular policies.”

So if Edonites are not out on the streets fighting against the anti-popular policies that their beloved comrade leader will impose, over the next couple of weeks, we will assume that they have all been smoking marijuana and are too stoned to resist.

SOMEONE could have thought that the comrade was stoned after hearing what he said in Brussels on Friday. He denied his government was dragging its feet on a bailout and said “we wanted to sign the memorandum as soon as possible.”

A week earlier he told unions bosses that if CoLA was abolished he would be out on the streets protesting with them, but now he wants to sign the anti-popular measures ASAP. Had he lost his desire to resist the troika’s anti-popular measures because he was half-stoned?

Of course not. The government has completely run out of money and will not be able to pay anyone at the end of November. All of a sudden he is eager to sign the anti-popular measures, which are being agreed by e-mail and phone. This was why, a day after the party representatives agreed specific pay-cuts for public parasites, the government announced even bigger cuts, incurring the wrath of Hadjiklamouris. 

It was simply following the orders of the troika, which has made it clear that its representatives would come to Kyproulla, once the bailout terms are agreed, so that the signatures could be put on the memorandum of understanding. 

THRILLED to see that Disy deputy Stella Kyriakidou has picked up our stories about the police ‘associates’ used to trap prostitutes, by having sex with them, and asked the minister of justice to brief the legislature about the procedures followed. 

Phil carried a very interesting article on the matter, pointing out that, the recruitment of associates, was a recent development. In the past cops acted as the paying customer, but this meant they would also have to appear in court as the main prosecution witness, which caused problems for married cops. Some wives just could not accept their hubby was having sex because it was his duty.

TEACHING union bosses have been crying louder than Hadjiklamouris since the pay cuts in the public sector were announced. Of course their main concern is not that teachers would take home less money, but that the education of our children would suffer as a result of the education cuts.

Primary school teachers’ union boss Filios Fylaktou had a wonderfully, self-pitying, melodramatic article published on Tuesday which he concluded thus: “The executioners have already placed their hands on lever that would release the guillotine and are about to pull it. This is why all we, the ordinary people, the dignified workers of the public and private sector, must ‘awake’ and undertake ACTION, beating the drums of war, sending clear messages today, because tomorrow it will be late.”

I hate to tell Filios that tomorrow has arrived.

A CyBC opinion poll on the presidential elections found that a second round of voting would be needed to decide the winner which means there are still 126 days left before our comrade leader does the first good thing for the country in his five-year term – leave office.  

THERE have been convergences among the political parties on the counter-proposals prepared by the finance ministry. Most of these convergences, as was expected, were of a negative nature. They all rejected the troika proposals for the abolition of CoLA, scrapping of the 13th salary, supervision of co-op banks by the Central Bank and the privatisation of semi-governmental organisations. On a more positive, but unrealistic note, they all wanted the memorandum of understanding on terms for a bailout to focus on development, as if this would ever happen.

On other issues such as the extension of the retirement age and cuts in welfare payments there were disagreements, but when it came to drawing the ‘red lines’ the political parties were unanimous, or, to be more precise, they adopted President Christofias’ negative positions. None of the parties would dare disagree, because they would be publicly crucified by the government and AKEL for supposedly adopting the anti-worker positions of the troika and serving the interests of big capital. 

The parties did not need much persuading to endorse Christofias’ sterile, defiant grandstanding, which was straight out of the Cyprus problem manual of red lines. The last time Christofias went to New York to meet the UN Secretary General, it was reported that he took with him three ‘nos’. He told Ban Ki moon ‘no’ to asphyxiating time-frames, ‘no’ to arbitration and ‘no’ to an international conference. A short while later, the talks ground to a halt helping the Turkish side move closer to its stated objective of partition.

But how clever is to adopt the zero-cost, negative tactics of the Cyprus problem in the talks with the troika? We simply cannot afford the bailout talks to break down like the Cyprus talks, blame the troika’s intransigence and wait for a new president to be elected in the hope that negotiations might resume. Negative grandstanding will have an extremely high cost such as the non-payment of 11th, 12th and 13th salaries to public employees, non-payment of welfare benefits and pensions etc. This will dry up the market much more than the non-payment of 13th salaries, which is one of our red lines. And how rational is it to risk the bailout for the sake of CoLA that would not be paid for the next four years anyway?

Even DISY, which has shown the most responsible and pragmatic line on the economy, has embraced the red lines drawn by our populist president who went as far as to say that he would be out demonstrating with the unions if the troika insisted on abolishing CoLA. Presidential elections are only four months away and DISY’s Nicos Anastasiades has to embrace the populist agenda of unattainable goals imposed by Christofias and AKEL, because he does not want to lose any votes. 

But as we mentioned above, negotiations with the troika cannot be treated in the same way as talks for a Cyprus solution, because deadlock in the former will have an immediate and very high cost. No red lines should have been drawn, because we are in no position to walk away from the troika talks without an agreement. What will our wise political leadership do if for a bailout all their red lines have to be violated? Will the party leaders join Christofias and the unions to demonstrate against the evil troika? And then what?

The fact is that bailout talks, unlike the Cyprus talks, do feature asphyxiating time-frames (we need to reach a deal before November 12), arbitration (a package of measures will be imposed by the troika and we will be told to take-it-or-leave-it) and an international conference (the Euro group meeting could impose additional measures before giving its approval). But the politicians are still behaving as if they have the luxury to set unattainable targets and walk away, as defiant heroes, if they fail to achieve them.

None of them has been honest enough to explain to people that this is not an option. Such honesty is too much to expect from politicians who deal in false hopes. Since the first visit of the troika to Cyprus, our politicians have created the impression that we will set the conditions for the billions of euro loan we would receive, implying that if our conditions were not met we would turn it down. 

This brazen political dishonesty, which allows unions to cultivate militant opposition to austerity and prolongs uncertainty, must stop. People must be told the hard facts - we are bankrupt; the state and banks desperately need funding of billions; we will have to make big sacrifices in order to secure it, and there is no alternative. Is it so difficult for our leaders to speak honestly to people, for once?  

A DEBT of €6.5m owed by the AKEL-controlled Delta Trading company was written off by the Bank of Cyprus in 2006, bringing the total loans the party controlled firms have not had to repay the bank to €9.5 million. 

The latest revelation follows an earlier one in August when Politis newspaper revealed that the Bank of Cyprus had written off a debt of nearly €3m owed by another AKEL-controlled company, Tamasos Enterprises Ltd. 

Delta Trading company was set up in 1965 and was part of a network of AKEL-controlled companies that had business dealings with the former Soviet Union, which offered the party much needed financial assistance. Following the fall of the regimes in the Eastern Bloc, Delta, as well as most of the ‘party’ companies begun to accumulate big debts. Furthermore, they were owed some US$7m by the former Soviet Union from the export of products of which $5.2m were assigned to the government and the rest were receivables for the Bank of Cyprus. Delta found itself on the brink of bankruptcy. 

On September 6, 2006, an agreement was made between then Bank of Cyprus manager (now finance minister) Vassos Shiarly, on behalf of the bank and Antonis Papanicolaou, director of Delta Trading Ltd, and AKEL secretariat member in charge of economic affairs, Venizelos Zanettou, whereby the assets of Delta Trading Ltd were transferred to Delta (Distributors) Ltd. It also provided for the forced sale of a plot of land (owned by Delta Trading) in Limassol, the writing off of €6.5m owed to the bank and the subsequent removal of all personal guarantors from the loan agreement.

More specifically, it was agreed that Delta Trading Ltd had reserves of CYP£90,000 and around £60,000 receivables. The bank and Delta appointed the director of Delta Trading as the liquidator with instructions to sell all stock/reserves and collect all money owed to the company. From the CYP£150,000, the bank would receive £124,000, £16,000 would go to the company to pay off other obligations (salaries, social insurance etc) and the remaining £10,000 would be the liquidator’s fee. The bank also agreed to grant Papanicolaou (the liquidator) an interest free loan of £124,000 so that he could pay off the bank immediately.

The stock was transferred to the new company Delta (Distributors) Ltd of which Papanicolaou was later the sole owner.

The plot of land, that was part of the agreement, was valued at £400,000 and it was agreed that from the sale, part would be used to pay the capital gains tax of this and other sales of land, and the rest would go against the debt of Delta Trading towards the Bank of Cyprus.

All this was the result of a decision taken by the board of directors of the Bank of Cyprus in May 2006 to find a ‘solution’ for the indebted company.

The way in which the Delta Trading Ltd. was stripped of its assets just prior to its official bankruptcy has angered other creditors. One has taken legal action and sent a letter to the Official Receiver disputing the amount of the reserves citing the 2005 audited accounts of the company that listed assets and receivables of much higher value. He also claimed that the company was the owner of collectable items such as coins, stamps and works of art that were not listed in the assets. According to the law, in case of liquidation all creditors should be treated equally, but this is for the courts to decide.

There is another issue though. The current finance minister, Shiarly, and AKEL’s Zanettou signed an agreement whereby the assets of Delta Trading Ltd were transferred just before its official liquidation to the new company Delta (Distributors) Ltd leaving the bank with a loss of €6.5m and other creditors with no chance of collecting any of the money owed to them. A second issue that arises is how Zanettou, negotiated, agreed and signed the deal with the Bank of Cyprus for the company’s bankruptcy since he had no legal connection to the company.

Could the answer be the fact that the real owner of the company was none other than AKEL? AKEL has never admitted that as a party it has any connection with companies and businesses in general. In fact in a recent interview in Politis, its General Secretary Andros Kyprianou said: “We own companies? If you mean that AKEL members are directors in companies, well, yes, but AKEL does not own any companies.”

In absolute ‘legal’ terms this may be correct. As several present and ex members of AKEL have said the party has a network of party businesses that on paper belong to AKEL members but the decisions and actions are controlled by the party.

Proof of this is an internal Bank of Cyprus memo, published on September 9 in Politis where it refers to the writing off of a €2.7m debt of another AKEL-controlled company, Tamasos Hotel Enterprises, and states that “The four guarantees/ors, according to them, were given following orders from their party AKEL, and it was a political decision since they are party officials.”

In the case of Delta Trading all owners are (or were) members of AKEL like ex Larnaca MP Doros Christodoulides, Vera Christodoulidou (sister of the MP), Doros Seraphim (ex-Omonia president and PRINTCO director), Skevi Koukouma, MP, and several other AKEL officials.

Even the plot of land that found its way into the assets of the company was part a donation made by the late Ezekias Papaioannou, a former AKEL general secretary. This plot belonged to his wife and his will gave it to Delta Trading Company.  

Political parties are not legal entities and as such cannot be shareholders in companies. For AKEL it is not compatible with its ideology either. On the other hand the party is a huge organisation with paid personnel and other expenses and is in need of funds. Apart from fund raising events, donations from members and party supporters, a considerable percentage of its revenue came from businesses it owned. This was especially the case during the Cold War, when AKEL companies generated large amounts of money from privileged trade with the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries. 

A network of companies were set up in the 1960s with the owners/shareholders being trusted party members. A senior party official disclosed that for safety reasons the individual shareholders would sign a share transfer document that was held by the party in case the party decided to change anything. When in 1989 a number of AKEL members defected, and held shares in AKEL-controlled companies, the ownership of these shares was never disputed by them.

Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly