THE GOVERNMENT yesterday announced its decision to end talks with the French-Russian energy consortium over licencing rights for the preferred Block 9 in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), choosing instead to start negotiations with the previously overlooked Italian-Korean consortium. 

Speaking after a cabinet meeting, government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou announced the termination of negotiations with the consortium comprising French energy giant Total, Russian company Novatec and GPB Global Resources BV (a Gazprombank subsidiary) for an offshore gas exploration licence in Cyprus’ block 9, citing lack of progress in the talks. 

Instead, the state will begin negotiations with the Italian-South Korean joint venture ENI-KOGAS for block 9, while negotiations will also be launched with Total for block 10. Until now, no negotiations had begun with any interested party for block 10, despite bids being made in the second licencing round for the remaining 12 blocks in Cyprus’ EEZ.

In late October, the government announced the decision to launch negotiations to award licences for blocks 2 and 3 with ENI-KOGAS, block 9 with Total-Novatek-GPB, and block 11 with Total alone.

The four offshore prospects are contiguous, lying north and north-east of block 12, where US firm Noble Energy has a concession to drill and has reported significant gas finds. Block 9 is considered to be the ‘prime cut’ of the four prospects, having received eight bids in total.

The government-appointed negotiating team met with the companies and consortia short-listed for blocks 2, 3, 9 and 11 in mid-November, asking them to return to the table in two weeks with improved proposals, regarding both the financial and technical aspects of their bids.  

By the end of November, negotiations began in earnest with Commerce Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis saying he expected contracts to be signed in early 2013, for which the government would earn a ‘signature bonus’ from the companies awarded licences that would go some way to filling near-empty state coffers. 

However, the government’s choice of companies and consortia raised a number of questions, particularly over block 9- considered the ‘prime cut’ of the four prospects, having received eight bids in total.

A number of press reports suggested the government had altered the order of ranking of the bids for block 9, eventually picking the Total-Novatec consortium despite its bid being graded fourth and fifth by the state’s own evaluation committee and French consultants Beicip Franlab.

The government has denied any wrongdoing, noting that the final decision rests with cabinet. It also highlighted there is no single ranking system for the bidders but rather, a number of different categories with different listings depending on the specific criteria evaluated. 

Sylikiotis argued at the time that the final decision took into account additional parameters, not just financial.  

In early November, daily Alithia claimed that the decision to award block 9 to the French and Russians was a political decision designed to sugar-coat an alleged request made by Cyprus for a €1 billion loan from Russia, which would allegedly come from the banks involved in the block 9 project.

On November 13, daily Phileleftheros published what it claimed were the full data on the respective scores awarded by Beicip and the Energy Service’s evaluation committee. The paper reported that Total-Novatec’s proposal for a signature bonus was 400 per cent lower than that of ENI-KOGAS.

There were even reports suggesting that some of the companies not picked are considering legally challenging the competition process though the government has denied being given any such warning from any of the bidders. 

It also highlights that the most important aspect of any deal is the share the state will get in the production sharing agreement. The government argues it has negotiated one of the best share percentages in the world. 

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Stefanou said negotiations for blocks 2, 3 and 11 have made progress, but that insufficient progress was made in negotiations for block 9, hence the decision to begin anew with ENI-KOGAS.

In addition, talks would begin with Total for block 10, meaning negotiations are now underway for five new blocks in Cyprus’ EEZ: with Total for blocks 10 and 11, and ENI-KOGAS for blocks 2, 3 and 9. 

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail last night, Sylikiotis said negotiations on the three blocks 2, 3 and 11 were proceeding well. All bidders have improved their bids, taking negotiations to an advanced stage, he said. 

“We expect negotiators to return to Cyprus for talks in the first ten days of January after which we can hopefully wrap up the process and reach agreement in that month,” said the minister. 

Regarding block 9, Sylikiotis pointed out that negotiations would not start from scratch since the same model is used for all, with mainly the financial criteria being the variable for each contract. 

“It is very important we proceed with the exploitation of our hydrocarbon deposits,” he said. 

A government source yesterday defended the decision to begin negotiations with the Total-Novatec consortium on 9, despite it leading to a dead-end. The source said the two sides reached an amicable agreement to end negotiations after the consortium’s value of how much gas was in block 9 proved to be less than the government’s own estimates. 

“The first criteria in the evaluation process is the size of the company, its technical and financial capacity. And Total is the biggest company in the group. They come second in deep water drilling in the world and second in their involvement in liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals,” said the source. 

“That’s why we want their strong presence in hydrocarbon explorations, because of their size and strength. They are more aggressive in their drilling timetables. That’s why we will start negotiations on block 10,” they added. 

It is believed block 10 has decent prospects for finding oil. 

The government also has one eye on attracting investors for the costly construction of an LNG terminal in Limassol. With big companies like Total and ENI involved, the idea is this will make it easier to raise the funds for the terminal.  

Commerce Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis

PAPHOS police yesterday urged people not to try and visit overflowing dams in the district as it was dangerous as long as the rains continued.
“Asprokremnos dam in Paphos overflowed at 4am [yesterday]. There are too many vehicles being driven to the area by curious motorists. I would ask the public not to go to this and other dams at the moment as it could be dangerous,” said police spokesman  Nicos Tsappis
Torrential rain over the last few days in Paphos has closed roads and caused severe damage in some areas, particularly in Latchi.
Tsappis added that a landslide also caused the Paphos to Polis road to be closed for a short time on Tuesday, a bridge and a house were badly damaged in Polis Chrysochous and the small dam in Argaka also overflowed, flooding a nearby house.
A torrent of water poured over the Coral Bay road flooding a gym on the ground floor of a house and causing thousands of euros worth of damage.
Personal trainer Mark Anthony said that the fully equipped gym and office space which covers 120 square metres had been completely ruined.
“Luckily no-one was in the gym as I’d had a cancellation. I was upstairs in the house working when I noticed water seeping onto the road,” he said.
Moments later, a massive torrent of water rushed across the Coral Bay road, over the property wall, covering the entire garden and swimming pool. It burst through the front door of the gym with such force that equipment and office furniture was lifted off the ground.
“The water was about waist high and the flooding lasted for about 45 minutes. I was feeling very panicky,” said Anthony.
“We’ve been here for just over a year. We didn’t have any problems with flooding last winter, but since this has happened, people have told me that a similar occurrence happened here a number of years ago.”
According to Anthony, the police closed the main road as the water rendered it impassable to traffic and fire engines arrived about an hour and a half later to start pumping the water from the area.
He added: “There is no drainage system here, so the water goes straight into the garden. It’s as if the house is set down inside a bowl which filled up around the house. I looked out of the window and we were surrounded by brown water.”
Antony tried to wade through the murk to save what he could but plasterboard partition walls crumbled and he  was unable to save most items.
“I was gutted and shocked. We have spent a lot of time and money building up our business and everything is ruined.”
Ian and Patricia Dobson who live on a boat at the Latchi marina said there was no let-up yesterday.
“Residents of the marina have no vehicle access whatsoever, and if you are unlucky enough to be berthed on the harbour exit wall (as we are) - getting out of the marina by foot looks impossible as well,” they told the Cyprus Mail.
They said the municipality have had repeated complaints from residents and businesses since last year, “but decided it wasn't a high enough priority”
“On Tuesday we were caught up in the flooding and had to be towed out of about three feet of water after attempting to drive across what is usually a small ‘puddle’. Overnight the river had burst again, washed away all the foundations of the unfinished road, and where the small puddle used to be - was a big hole - undetectable until you drove into it.  As ever, the buck is being passed and no-one seems to be prepared to take any responsibility.”

STROVOLOS municipality plans to put an end to illegal parking on pavements, roundabouts and even at stop signs in the area of the GSP Stadium in Nicosia, it said yesterday.
The municipality, with the police have begun a campaign in an attempt to put an end to severe congestion before and after football matches held at the stadium.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday Strovolos Mayor Lazaros Savvides, said the situation had turned into a ‘nightmare’ for many residents near the stadium. “They have every right to complain,” he said. “If you have ever had the chance to go to a football match you would have seen the amount of cars parked illegally, making it very difficult for residents to get to their homes or even ambulances to get into the area,” he added.
According to the police, the problem has been going on for some time, especially on weekends when football matches take place. “The stadium has 2,278 available parking spots for cars but during matches not all the spaces are filled,” Nicosia’s Police chief, Kypros Michaelides said. “Instead the pavements are littered with cars, forcing pedestrians to walk in the road,” he added.
Fans travelling to the stadium are being encouraged to at least travel in twos in a car where possible and to use the stadium’s car park
 Police are hoping that by preventing people from illegally parking around the stadium they can alleviate some of the post-match traffic. “What people don’t understand is that by parking illegally they cause more congestion later, meaning it takes even longer for everyone to get home after a match,” Michaelides said. “With these measures, we hope that we can reduce the time that it takes to leave the stadium to half an hour as opposed to around 45 minutes as it currently stands,” he added.
“From now until January 20, when APOEL play arch-rivals Omonoia, we will be informing people with leaflets at the stadium and also using the PA system inside the GSP. After that date we will be forced to fine people,” Michaelides added. Anyone who parks illegally in the area after January 20 will be at risk of receiving a fine of up to €85.
Savvides queried why Cypriots abroad always obey the law but when they return home they feel they can park wherever they like. “If you have the chance to go abroad to other stadia, you will often find that people will park kilometres away from their destination and walk the remaining distance because they know if they park illegally they will receive a heavy fine,” he remarked.
“The police don’t want to burden people more during these economically difficult times by handing out fines but we need to keep the order and believe that four weeks warning is more than enough time for people to comply with the law,” Michaelides concluded.

COMMERCE Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis said yesterday that talks with a French-Russian consortium over exploration rights in offshore Block 9 were abandoned because the bidders’ estimate of the gas reserves lying within the prospect did not match the government’s assessment.
It’s understood that, under the working formula, the higher the estimate of reserves in a prospect, the greater the government’s share in a production-sharing contract. It appears that the estimate by the Total-Novatec consortium was lower than the government’s – which would have meant a smaller cut for Cyprus once extraction began.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, government sources said yesterday that under ENI-KOGAS’s offer on Block 9, the state’s share could now go up to 70 per cent. By comparison, the share for Block 12 (with US firm Noble Energy) is “around” 60 per cent, depending on the operator’s costs.
On Wednesday the Cabinet announced that the state would commence negotiations with the Italian-South Korean joint venture ENI-KOGAS for Block 9, after talks with the Total-Novatec did not progress as desired. In addition, negotiations are to be launched with Total E&P Activites Petrolieres (a French company) for block 10. Until now, no negotiations had taken place with any interested party on this block.
The move raised some eyebrows, as the French-Russian consortium had initially been picked for Block 9 despite its bid being ranked fourth or fifth. According to press reports at the time, Total-Novatec’s bid had scored around 50 points short of the top-ranked bid submitted by ENI- KOGAS.
At the time, the government insisted there was nothing untoward in changing the ranking of the bids, stating that other parameters – such as national security – were taken into account. Now, the government has gone back to the bidder who had obtained the highest score in the first place.
It’s also understood that, on Block 10, Total’s bid on was top-ranked, followed closely by ENI-KOGAS.
Sylikiotis said that during a meeting on Monday with representatives of the Total-Novatec consortium, “it emerged that further progress could not be achieved and the negotiations were terminated by common consent.”
He added: “Because we felt it important to maintain Total’s strong presence in the process, to ensure this we opened talks with them on Block 10.”
The minister denied that talks with Total-Novatec had crashed and burned: “It is up to each company to say how it assesses this or that block.”
He also dismissed suggestions that the consortium was disqualified because the signature bonus it offered for Block 9 was too low; a signature bonus pales in comparison to the amount the state stands to make from actual exploitation, he explained.
“What matters the most in the contracts is the stake of the state. It’s possible that in the final contracts Cyprus could secure some of the highest percentages in the world, perhaps reaching 65 to 70 per cent,” he said.
In early January the ENI-KOGAS people will be back on the island for talks on Block 9, while at the same time negotiations will start with Total on Block 10.

THE MAYAN calendar did not predict the end of the world, according to NASA and ESA scientists, in an interview with the Cyprus News Agency (CNA).
NASA and ASA also said that there was no such planet called ‘Nibiru’ that will supposedly hit and destroy the Earth.
“I personally have understood that the Mayan calendar is a calendar just like the ones we are using today. After the last day of the currently valid calendar, we will have the first day of the next calendar”, Head of the Space Weather Segment in the European Space Agency Space  Situational Awareness Programme, Juha Pekka Luntama, said.
He added that the “only scientifically predictable end of the world is in about five billion years from now when our Sun gradually runs out of fuel and becomes a white dwarf in a process that lasts another 4-5 billion years”.
The theory about the end of the world was dismissed also by NASA. “Just as the calendars we have at home do not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012”, a NASA
official told CNA.
On Nibiru, the ESA official said: “The gravitational impact of an unknown planetary body in the inner solar system would be detectable in the orbits of the other planets and thus this kind of a planet could not be kept secret even from amateur astronomers. So Niburu does not exist.”
But according to Zecharia Sitchin, an Azerbaijani-born American author and archaeologist, Nibiru is mentioned in ancient Sumerian iconography and symbology.
In his 1976 book “The 12th Planet” Sitchin attempts to translate the ancient Sumerian writings saying that they mention the existence of a 12th planet - the eight known planets, plus Pluto, the Sun and the Moon - called Nibiru.
He also says that the ancient Sumerian writings speak about the creation of Homo Sapiens by Nibiru inhabitants - the so-called Annunaki (those who came from heaven to the Earth) who mixed their own DNA with Homo Erectus, thus creating Homo Sapiens.
“There are claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is heading towards the Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but nothing happened so they moved the end of the
world to December 2012 linking it with the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar”, the NASA official told CNA.
He also said that NASA astronomers were carrying out a survey called the Spaceguard Survey to find any large near-Earth asteroids long before they hit.
“There are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs,” he concluded.

THE Cyprus Mail hit the streets of Nicosia yesterday to find out how people felt about the end of the world, which some believe is today.
Despite Mayan prophecies, the majority of those polled didn’t believe the world was ending any time soon and the response was philosophical.
“I have followed the Mayan calendar for the last ten years and I can tell you that there is absolutely no basis to people claiming the world will end,” 34-year-old jewellery-maker Vassiliki said. “The world needs to change, not to end,” she added.
Andreas Nicolaou, a 61-year-old civil servant was one step ahead of the Mayans and claimed to know exactly when the world would end. “Do you know when the world will end?” he asked. “When I die, because my world will end that day,” he explained. “All these people who claim to know when the world ends is just their imagination playing tricks on them,” he added.
“So what if it’s the end of the world, it’s not like it’s ours anyway,” was the response we got from 21-year-old Yiannis from Greece. “It’s all rubbish, this talk of the end of the world anyway,” he added.
Chris, 37, was feeling jovial when he told the Mail, “It’s not going to be the end of the world, what happened was the Mayan’s found a large slab of stone and carved out their calendar but ran out of space.”
Despite their age, four young students from Highgate School gave some philosophical replies to whether they believed the world was coming to an end. “The end of the world will be a gradual thing, it won’t happen suddenly from one day to the next,” 18-year-old Sevag Ouzounian said. An opinion shared by 15-year-old Becky Kamitsis, “It’s not possible for someone to predict when the world will end as it will be gradual.”
“It’s all rubbish,” her 18-year-old sister Hester said. “I heard some people saying that the date had changed and the world was going to end in 2014, which proves it’s not real,” she added, while 16-year-old Katerina Demetriou, the last student to speak, had more of a theological approach to her answer, “I really don’t believe that the world is going to end tomorrow,” she said. “The only person who knows when the world will end is God,” she added.
Ambrosia, a 48-year-old shop owner explained how she tries to live each day at a time. “It’s very much a case of carpe diem for me, I just try to get on with it and not pay too much attention to all these doomsdayers,” she said. “I look at all those poor people in the Middle-East and I can’t even imagine what they’re going through,” she added. “They don’t have a set day that is the end of the world, each day for them could possibly be the end,” she concluded.

FINANCE MINISTER Vassos Shiarly yesterday denied German press reports that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was seeking a haircut of Cyprus’ debt to make it more sustainable before agreeing to participate in an international bailout of the country.
“There is no issue of a haircut (of Cypriot debt) therefore all these reports in various media are allegations of IMF positions,” said Shiarly yesterday afternoon.
Speaking at a press conference, he added: “The IMF has made no such reference and it is unnecessary to comment on such claims that someone supposedly made.”
Popular German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung ran an article citing sources close to the troika negotiations with Cyprus saying that the IMF refuses to participate in the bailout unless Cyprus agrees on a debt haircut, as happened with Greece, despite the latter supposedly being a one-off. 
The IMF allegedly feels that without a debt haircut, Cyprus’ debt will not be sustainable.
The paper also reported that Germany and the Netherlands will not even contemplate a bailout for Cyprus without the IMF’s contribution.
The German daily proposed an alternative solution where Russian passes on a €5 billion loan to Cyprus via the IMF, keeping the IMF in the game while using Russian money to bailout Cyprus’ banks that are filled with Russian money. The latter point has become a common theme in German media lately, following suspected leaks from the German intelligence agency on alleged Russian money laundering on the island.
A debt haircut would prove disastrous for Cyprus as the largest holders of Cypriot government bonds are Cypriot banks. In the event of a haircut, the banks would take a big hit on those bonds, meaning even more money will be needed for their recapitalisation.
Shiarly argued that it was premature and tantamount to speculation to be discussing debt sustainability before investment company PIMCO completes its review of the recapitalization needs of Cypriot banks.
PIMCO’s final estimations on Cyprus’ exposure to Greece and the amount the banks will need from international lenders will be handed over mid-January, a week before the Eurogroup (Eurozone finance ministers) will meet to discuss the Cyprus rescue package on January 21.
The final figure released by PIMCO will have a big impact on how sustainable Cyprus’ debt will be post-bailout. Reports suggest Cyprus will borrow around €17.5 billion from the troika made up of the EU/IMF/European Central Bank. However this figure only stands as long as the banks don’t need more than €10 billion rescue money.
“The problem we have arises to a large extent from the cooperation and solidarity we showed as an EU member state when we were called to contribute to the request of another EU member state,” said Shiarly yesterday in reference to the massive hit Cypriot banks took from the 80 per cent Greek debt haircut as a result of their overexposure to Greek government bonds. 
The minister also told reporters that “the financing needs of the state are covered for December, January and February”. Three semi-government organisations (EAC, Cyta and the ports authority) all agreed in recent days to provide the state with €250m in total in short-term loans. 
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due in Cyprus on January 11 for an extraordinary party summit of the European People’s Party in Limassol, hosted by DISY leader Nicos Anastasiades and EPP leader Wilfried Martens.
According to reports, Merkel is due to meet with President Demetris Christofias during her visit.
 

AMID the blitz of salary and benefit cutbacks, the overwhelming majority of MPs on Wednesday voted against a proposal for slashing their own representation allowance by 15 per cent.
The amendment, proposed by Greens MP George Perdikis, was backed by a grand total of seven deputies.
The proposal tabled by Perdikis envisaged adding MPs to the list of state officials – such as permanent secretaries of ministries – who will see a 15 per cent reduction in their monthly representation allowance.
“If with this austerity budget civil servants are on average taking a hit of 10 per cent on their income, then state officials – including ourselves – should set the example with a 20 per cent cut,” Perdikis said yesterday, explaining the logic behind his proposal.
But the vast majority of his colleagues felt otherwise. MPs voting against his proposal argued that reducing the representation allowance – which amounts to some €1,700 per month – would ‘punish’ recipients twice, since this allowance will henceforth be taxed for all concerned.
Previously, the allowances given to MPs were all tax-free; that’s no longer the case.  Other benefits enjoyed by deputies are the secretary allowance (around €1,000), the travel expenses allowance (€650), and a per-diem allowance for expenses while on official trips abroad (€250 for trips to the European Union).
At last count, MPs’ basic salary amounted to €3,300 per month, but that was slashed by about 10 per cent in the 2012 budget that was passed in December last year.
Now, with the broader cuts to the salaries of state officials and the taxing of allowances, it’s estimated that MPs’ take-home pay will be further reduced by some €1,000 to €1,200 a month.
The 2013 budget also did not do away with funds set aside for all former Presidents of the Republic and former House Speakers. The fund is intended to cover these state officials’ expenses for a personal assistant and for a chauffeur once they are out of office. Far from being abolished or trimmed down, this year the amount was actually raised to €283,000 to account for the imminent addition of Demetris Christofias to the list of ex-Presidents.

LAWMAKERS yesterday grudgingly endorsed sweeping changes to pension payments in the broader public sector, part of a cost-saving drive agreed between Cyprus and international lenders.
The changes affect retirement age, the calculation of pension benefits, and the one-off retirement bonus. The measures affect people employed in the central government, semi-governmental organisations and local administration.
Employees entitled to a pension and the one-off bonus, having attained the age of 45 or 48 before December 31, 2012, will not experience any reduction in their pension benefits for services rendered up until that date, in the event they do not opt for early retirement.
Persons under the age of 45 on this date who retire early, will see an actuarial reduction in their pension benefits for services rendered up to December 31, 2012, to be calculated on the assumption that mandatory retirement age is 60 years.
For those who attain the age of 48 after December 31, 2012, and opt for early retirement, deductions will be made on their pensions on the assumption that mandatory retirement age is 63 years.
The new law also provides for zero taxation on the pension bonus for services rendered up until 31 December of this year.
The bonus accumulated for services beyond January 1, 2013 will be taxed according to the provisions of income tax laws.
Moreover, employees’ pension benefits for services beyond that date will be calculated as the average of gross income for the months of service from January 1, 2013 up until the date of retirement.
The law provides also for extending the mandatory retirement age for civil servants, employees of SGOs, teachers, police officers and members of the National Guard.
Legislators complained yesterday they did not have enough time to study the new measures– particularly that regarding increasing retirement age in the military – and pledged to revisit the matter if the application of the law caused problems in the future.
 Despite discussing the contentious law on Immovable Property Tax, legislators again decided to postpone voting, which will likely take place in January after parliament has reconvened.
By a majority vote, parliament also re-passed an amending law impacting the state hydrocarbons company (KRETYK), after President Christofias refused to sign it and sent it back to the House. Among other things, the law seeks to exert greater financial oversight over the company and gives parliament a say in the criteria used for the selection of the executive directors.
Meanwhile Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly felt the need to thank parliament for passing the 2013 austerity-geared budget earlier on Wednesday, this, he said, would enhance Cyprus’ credibility as the island hopes to clinch an EU/IMF bailout early next year.
“Personally, I could not have expected a more positive response on the part of the entire political leadership,” he said.

IT WOULD have surprised nobody that the overwhelming majority of deputies voted against the Giorgos Perdikis amendment to a government bill that would have cut the ‘representation allowance’ collected by deputies and senior state officials by 15 per cent. Only seven deputies did not vote against the amendment, which would have led to an additional cut of €300 to their monthly income (the allowance is about €24,000 per year).
Several reasons were given for this. Deputies would already have their monthly income reduced by about €1,000 from the other cuts imposed by the budget; also from 2013, the allowance would be taxed which meant recipients would already have taken a slightly reduced amount. Then again, all these years, deputies, judges, permanent secretaries etc paid no tax on the ‘representation allowance’ which was still pensionable.
This was an opportunity for deputies to set a good example, to show that in very difficult times for the country, the privileges of the past could not be sustained, but unfortunately, like everyone else living off the state, they put personal interest first. They were not willing to sacrifice a few more hundred euro in order to show all other protesting citizens who have had benefits and allowances cut that this is a time for sacrifices.
Leadership by example has never been embraced by our ruling establishment. On the contrary, it subscribes to the practice followed by authoritarian and totalitarian states which reward the members of their ruling elite better than anyone else. In the Soviet Union the top members of the Communist Party enjoyed a much higher standard of living than the impoverished population.
Was it any surprise that on taking power the communist president doubled the ‘representation allowance’ of all state officials? Is it any surprise that deputies receive retirement bonuses and pensions disproportionately large for the number of years they serve as representatives and the hours they work? But as members of the ruling elite they consider preferential treatment their right and have contempt for the notion of leadership by example.
President Christofias was not even prepared to give up the per diem allowance of €200 that a president is paid when abroad, because of the recession; his predecessors did not claim it as the president’s expenses, when abroad, were paid for by the taxpayer. Not that this would have made a difference to state finances, but it would have been a good example to set.
Given the self-serving behaviour of our ruling elite, is it any wonder that all members of our society who have suffered pay cuts and loss of benefits have been complaining or protesting?

PEOPLE are still waiting for Christmas letters and parcels from the UK, but the postal services said yesterday they were trying to resolve the situation with the Royal Mail.
“Over the past few days – just like last year – we have unfortunately observed delays with UK delivery because there are fewer flights [from the UK to Cyprus],” the head of postal services, Andreas Gregoriou, said.
Delivering postal sacks then becomes by default a lower priority as far as these flights are concerned, Gregoriou said.
Most of the post traffic hails to and from the UK and on average postal services are receiving between 150 and 200 postal sacks a day, an increase of up to 25 per cent compared to the rest of the year, Gregoriou said.
Each sack may weigh a maximum of 30 kilos.
“For three weeks I’ve been expecting my parcels to arrive, I think that’s fair enough,” said a mother of three, who added that she was not going to have presents under her Christmas tree for the second year running.
Though their children realise that their presents will come eventually, “it’s a bit unfair when presents arrive for one of them but not for the rest,” she said.
And she has been waiting for a delivery sent out from the UK in mid-November, she said.
“It’s hard enough to be organised at Christmas when you’re working and you’ve got three kids. You really do need the post office to be on your side,” she added.
But Sarah Murphy – who was let down by the service last year – had only good things to say this time round. “They’ve done perfectly,” Murphy said adding that she ordered gifts from an internet site on December 3 and has been getting parcels through last week and the week before that.
Still, delivery seems to be a hit or miss affair and people have reported having to enquire about undelivered parcels they were not notified about.
One man enquired at his local post office and was led into a room full of undelivered packages.
The postal services said that people were always notified about getting larger parcels – that are tracked electronically – and they had a notification system in place for the smaller parcels.
Earlier this week a Limassol-based woman said that she had only received one item of post from the UK even though she has been waiting for letters, photographs, small [parcels], some since the end of November.
“Where is the mail? Is it lying in bags like last year in Larnaca airport?”
She was referring to thousands of delayed post last year that was eventually delivered by the end of December, too late for hundreds of people who were counting on getting their Christmas items before that.
Despite progress, some have lost hope.
“I have now decided to ask people not to send any more cards… to Cyprus,” the disappointed Limassol resident said.
“It’s a fact that at this time of year there is increased traffic,” Gregoriou said though he said the feedback they were getting from people showed that services had improved.
Postal traffic last year amounted to a minimum of 615,000 arrivals last December compared to average monthly traffic of about 550,000.
Around 11,500 parcels are delivered on average in December, versus some 9,000 on average for any other month in the year.

Postal services busier than ever

FUNDRAISERS will brave the winter seas in Paphos to take part in a Boxing Day swim to raise money for local charities.
Supporters of Paphos-based Paphiakos and CCP animal welfare charity will take a 15 minute dip in the sea on December 26, aiming to match last year’s total which raised 2,000 euros for the charity.
“This is the third year that Paphiakos has done the swim and it’s growing in support every year. The first year it was just me and last year there were 15 of us,” said Suzanne Ashmore, the public relations manager of the charity said.
Swimmers are sponsored to raise money for the charity and have to remain in the water, either swimming or treading water. They are not allowed to wear wet suits. Other than that they can wear anything they want, even fancy dress.
“The first year I swam, I was sponsored an extra 500 euros to swim out to a rock and sit on top of it for five minutes singing the ‘Hawaii Five O’ theme tune and then I had to get back into the icy water. It was absolutely freezing,” she said.
Ashmore said that swimmers supporting other charities, such as the cancer patients support group, also joined last year’s event.
The CCP is a registered charity which operates an animal rescue shelter and a clinic situated in Kato Paphos. The charity also recently opened a spaying and neutering clinic in Polis.
The Paphiakos Shelter in Paphos provides a caring home to numerous dogs, cats, donkeys, horses, rabbits, goats and even has one sheep. Visitors are encouraged at the shelter, which is open every day of the year.
Participants of the swim range in age. This year, for example, two teenage boys from France will be holidaying with their grandparents and are also taking part.
“We also have a lady in her 80s who will be braving the waters; the swim attracts all nationalities and ages,” she said.
Bathers meet on Boxing Day at 10.30 am at Vardas Beach which is off the Coral Bay road in Kissonerga and at 11am, they will all enter the water.
According to Ashmore, last year’s temperatures were bearable unlike the previous year which was freezing.
There are currently over one thousand animals at the Paphos shelter and although all of the dogs and cats are looking for new loving homes, Ashmore says the charity prefers not to re-home animals during Christmas week.
“It’s the same all over the world, animals don’t make good presents, the new owner should really bond with the animal before taking it and giving an animal as a present is not the best way of re-homing it,” she said.
As well as re-homing animals Paphiakos and CCP animal welfare also offer a range of services including a pet travel service, grooming and boarding facilities and a pet cremation service.



Sponsorship forms are still available from Paphiakos and CCP animal welfare and are also available to download from the website. Contact Suzanne Ashmore on 99151996. Website www.cyprusanimalwelfare.org

Fundraisers who took part in last year's Boxing Day swim

FOR MANY years the English School and Junior School were friendly neighbours, sharing a prime piece of extensive, forested real estate in the centre of Nicosia, but that friendship has turned sour with one school accusing the other of engaging in a vicious land grab.
The increasingly acrimonious falling out started in June when the Junior School signed a lease agreement with the government to the tune of €1000 a month for 99 years for a piece of land next to their school grounds to extend their premises. Unfortunately the land the Junior School coveted and signed the lease for houses the recently refurbished English School Old Boys and Girls Association (ESOBGA) club house.
The response from ESOBGA has been vitriolic and it accused the Junior School of trying to take land from under the English School’s noses.
“We’ve attempted to be dignified,” chairman of the Junior School board, Nick Papandreou told the Sunday Mail. “We tried to find a solution but they (ESOBGA) have attacked members of our board personally,” he added.
“We’ve been accused of going behind ESOBGA and English School’s back to get the lease in record time,” Papandreou explained. “We followed legal procedure by finding out who owned the land, the government, and making a lease agreement with them.”
He also dismissed claims that the Junior School had used connections within the government to get the lease agreement in record time.
“Those are false as we applied back in October 2010,” he said.
ESOBGA, the Junior School says, has accused them of being a private, profit-making organisation and one that intends to destroy the environment by chopping down swathes of trees near the clubhouse and adding to traffic congestion in the area. The school has also been accused of leasing the land in order to build new premises for their sister secondary school, The Senior School, which at present is located elsewhere in Nicosia.
The Junior School has denied the allegations saying the institution was established in 1948 as a not-for-profit organisation. Their revenues and assets can only be used to forward the aims of the school, the school said in a recent statement.
“The Junior School has no intention or plans whatsoever of commissioning any kind of building facilities within this leased plot of forest land. The plot in question will be exclusively used as a much needed schoolyard and for sports facilities,” the school’s statement said.
As for the plans to move the Senior School, the school board said they are currently in the final stages of securing a suitable plot from the Archbishopric for the new premises and will publicise the location once they have signed legal documents.
The Junior School said it was the English School’s alumni, not their school which threatened the local environment.
“It is the ESOBGA itself that has, through the years, shown a blatant disregard to the forest environment and the surrounding neighbourhood by operating, without any licence whatsoever,” the statement said.
“The public’s best interests are better served through the upgrading of a non-for-profit school, which through its operations saves the government and the taxpayer approximately €10 million annually (based on government figures of the cost of public education) rather than by turning a blind eye and supporting a facility, illegally built within forest land, which is operated as a coffee shop, kebab house and meeting place of an association of leavers of a private school.”
But ESOBGA members remain convinced they have been treated shoddily and that the Junior School has mishandled the way it leased the land.
“We have been neighbours for so long and always had a great relationship with the Junior School, their headmaster and the chairman of the board,” head of ESOBGA, Magda Nicholson told the Sunday Mail this week. “So it was a big shock to find out that they had gone behind our backs, straight to the ministry. To think that many of those on the Junior School board are English School alumni makes it even harder to believe and comprehend.”
ESOGBA has currently filed an interim with the courts to delay the Junior School acting on the lease. It is a move that Nicholson regrets but she said the Junior School had left them with no choice.
“Things were not done correctly on their behalf and we wouldn’t have been forced to file an interim order against the Junior School if they had just come to us with any demands they had,” Nicholson said. “We could have sat down and come to some kind of compromise to find a solution instead of making us feel like we were being completely undermined and forced to react to their actions.”
With a lease agreement in place it would appear that it is checkmate to the Junior School, but Nicholson remains defiant.
“We wouldn’t have pushed through an interim order had we not believed we could win,” she said. “Some people say we may be fighting a losing battle and that the interim order was only filed to delay the inevitable, but we believe that justice will be upheld.”
Papandreou was equally scathing. “They have knowingly said lies about zoning, about the legality of the building and about what we plan to build just to drum up support,” he said.
“Even though I am an alumnus, with their actions and words, I no longer feel that ESOBGA represents me.”
 

The English School's alumni clubhouse is under threat

A LARGE number of pig farmers may be forced to shut down for failing to comply with an EU directive on animal welfare effective from January, stakeholders have said.
Both the closing down of the farms and the new regulations will almost inevitably force up the price of pork.
As of January 1, 2013, pregnant sows will not be allowed to be kept in individual gestation stalls, as has been standard practice so far. They will instead be kept in group pens, allowing them to freely move around during their pregnancy. Farmers use ‘sow’ stalls in intensive pig farming to help with often fraught feeding times and deal with aggression such as ear-biting. But animal welfare campaigners say sows suffer psychologically from being separated from other animals, and are hit by ailments such as lameness. The stalls are so narrow and constricting that sows can only stand up to eat and then lie back down.
While animal welfare groups across Europe have welcomed the move, many member states predict that the cost of applying the ban will force more breeders out of the sector, leading to lower output and higher pork prices. The European Commission expects only 17 out of the 27 member states to fully comply by the end of the year, leaving more than a third of the bloc behind schedule despite the 11-year notice.
Cyprus is certain to be among those failing to meet the deadline.
“We still have a long way to go in this area. There are a lot of pig farms that have not adapted to the new directive,” head of the pig farming department at ministry of agriculture, Petros Mavrommatis, told the Sunday Mail.
Cyprus has had a history of not complying with EU animal welfare directives. A previous directive which forced farmers to use larger chicken cages was not complied with on time, and the European Commission had given Cyprus an extension.
“The European Commission has said that we will not be giving any extensions this time around. The pig farms which have not adapted to the new directive will simply not be allowed to operate,” said Mavrommatis.
The veterinary services that are in charge of implementing and regulating the new rules were not prepared to release any information this week on how many farms have complied so far, even though the deadline is less than two weeks away.
In 2011, the vet services inspected 91 pig farms and found 77 farms that had not complied with regulations, according to their end of year report on their website. But there was no breakdown of violations per regulation and no figure was given for breeding procedures’ violations.
Though there was funding available via the EU agricultural development scheme, only few farmers in Cyprus have applied, Mavrommatis said.
Though Mavrommatis said that a few farmers are trying - even at the last minute - to benefit from the scheme, “that opportunity has effectively closed” for most who have not applied in the current period of 2007-2013, he said.
The scheme offered 60 per cent EU-funding to help farmers comply with regulations.
Giorgos Neophytou from the pig farmers’ association said there was reason to be pessimistic anyway because the state’s financial difficulties and uncertainty over the EU budget affected how much funding the pig farmers will actually receive.
According to the pig farmers’ association, 15 pig farms have closed in the past 15 months. A number of factors have contributed to this decrease, including the pig welfare directive, and another EU directive involving the biological processing of waste.
Grain prices - that account for about a third of pig farmers’ cost - have also surged this year, coinciding with a harsh and austere financial climate.
The Pancyprian Pig Farmers Association highlights the injustice they feel the pig farmers are facing.
“What are pig breeders supposed to do? The veterinary services are pressuring the farms to make the changes, but the government won’t allow the farms to make them because of planning permission rules.”
The agriculture ministry’s Mavrommatis said that when planning permission licences were introduced in 1990, “many pig farms found themselves in areas where expanding or developing their farm was prohibited. Since the grounds of the farms need to be expanded in order to comply with the new regulations, many farms will inevitably have to close down.”
Most pig farms are in the outskirts of Nicosia and have effectively become enclaves, surrounded by residential areas and other agricultural and farming zones, Mavrommatis said.
N. Armenis pig farm outside Limassol is one of the larger pig breeding units in Cyprus. They are in the final stages of making the changes, as could be seen from all the building material scattered on the grounds during a recent visit.
The owner of the pig farm, Kostas Armenis, explains the breeding process. Whilst pregnant sows have to now be kept in group pens, five days before they give birth they can still be taken to individual farrowing stalls. The new directive allows these stalls to remain mainly for the protection of the piglets. Because of the large size and weight of the sows, there is a risk that they can flatten their young when they lie down. It is also important to separate the sows during this period in order to avoid aggression and fighting, which may result in pig losses. The sows can only be kept in the farrowing stalls for a maximum of four weeks, after which they must be returned to their group pens.
Sows are also allowed to be kept in individual stalls during impregnation. A total of 95 per cent of insemination is artificial so the process is made easier if sows are in stalls where they can’t move around.
“The new regulations provide that each sow must have 2.25 square metres of space. How large the pens are depends on the pig farmers,” Armenis explains. He estimates that the new directive will cost pig farmers a minimum of €500 per sow and predicts that many pig farms may have to close down, especially the smaller units. The interiors of pig farms need to be entirely re-designed and outdoor pens need to be created.
The agriculture ministry said that the cost to farmers varied, depending on the existing infrastructure and the size of the farm. But moving farms would be “very costly”, Mavrommatis said.
The European Commission predicted between 3.0 and 4.0 per cent of EU pig breeders would halt production next year. According to farm and industry officials, EU pig production would in turn fall 5.0 per cent over the next three years because of the sow stall ban - 1.0 per cent this year, 3.0 per cent in 2013 and 1.0 per cent in 2014.
While the impact will be felt across the full range of Europe’s food products, quantifying the exact effect is hard. As a benchmark, in France, pork prices already gained 24 per cent between May and September to 180 euros ($230) for 100 kilograms (220 lbs) due to the drop in output, according to French farm office FranceAgriMer.
Yet most of the rise has not been felt on French food shelves so far and pork prices tend to wane as consumers opt increasingly for red meat and poultry-based dishes as part of year-end celebrations. The full extent of the sow stall ban will only be felt a few months later when all the piglets born before the move have been slaughtered.
The impact of the ban will differ widely by country. Britain, Sweden and Luxembourg have already banned the stalls. Britain, which put its ban in place in 1999, saw a 40 per cent fall in its herd over the last decade as its farmers were unable to compete with countries which did not use such stalls. Production this year is finally recovering. But output has been hit hard in Germany, the EU's largest pig meat producer with a market share of 25 per cent in 2010.
The extent to which the Cyprus pig farming industry and pork prices will be affected will be seen after the January 1 deadline. Pork prices this year have already risen, from between €2.90 and €5.20 per kilo last year to between €4.60 and €5.25 per kilo this year, the commerce ministry has said.
But because pork has been traditionally considered the cheap meat alternative in Cyprus, convincing the consumer to pay more for pork so that farmers account for increased production costs will be hard, the agriculture ministry’s Mavrommatis said.

The banned stalls are so narrow and constricting that sows can only stand up to eat and then lie back down

THE STATE’S top mandarins attended an event at the Filoxenia conference centre yesterday marking the end of Cyprus’ presidency of the EU council.

President Demetris Christofias thanked everyone who was involved in a “very successful Cyprus presidency” that compared favourably with other EU member-state’s presidencies, he said. 

Christofias told ministers, the attorney-general, volunteers and civil servants that they had all honoured their posts, “overthrowing suppositions that civil servants supposedly do not work hard”.

Under very harsh financial conditions for Cyprus, the island managed to harness praise from commissioners and EU top brass, Christofias said.

Deputy Minister for European affairs, Andreas Mavroyiannis, also thanked everyone who was employed under the presidency. 

“From the moment guests stepped foot on Cyprus and up until they stepped back onto a plane, we were by their side,” Mavroyiannis said. 

“Everyone was left more than content,” Mavroyiannis added.

This was Cyprus’ first presidency. 

President Demetris Christofias with civil servants yesterday (PIO)

THE SECURITIES and Exchange Commission (SEC) has called on the Bank of Cyprus (BoC) executive board members to explain why they failed to inform their shareholders of the bank’s real recapitalisation needs as per the law’s requirements.

Banks are legally obliged to inform their shareholders of “any confidential information that directly impacts [the banks]”, ensuring that the data is available online for at least five years. 

The BoC told shareholders in its annual general meeting (AGM) that it needed to cover – through private funds – a shortfall of €200 million. 

But soon afterwards on June 27, the BoC requested €500 million in state assistance after failing to raise the necessary capital to meet a regulatory shortfall because of increased provisions and its exposure to Greek bonds.

The SEC looked at whether shareholders should have been told about these additional needs that were not made public in the AGM.

“In our opinion, [the BoC] should have announced [its needs] on June 15, not later,” said SEC chairwoman Demetra Kalogirou. 

The AGM was held on June 19, and shareholders would have had until June 15 to pose any questions they had in writing four days prior to the AGM.

The SEC can impose a fine on the bank as an entity and the executives and board members at the time, but has for now only called for an explanation, Kalogirou said.

The BoC issued an announcement yesterday saying while it was reserving its legal rights, it disagreed with the SEC because the information it held at the time did not qualify as “confidential information” to be shared as laid out in the law.

“Despite its disagreement, the BoC will continue collaborating with the SEC and all regulators, in full awareness of its obligation and mission, given the unprecedented difficulties that Cyprus and its financial system is facing,” the announcement said.

CLAIMING he was defrauded of €108,000, a Paphos-based man has filed a civil suit against the Popular Bank as a legal entity, the bank’s former brass, and former Central Bank governor, Athanasios Orphanides, it emerged yesterday.

The civil suit is the first filed by an individual belonging to a group of investors claiming they were duped into investing high-risk and high-yield securities, the association for holders of securities’ Phivos Mavrovouniotis told state broadcaster CyBC.

Mavrovouniotis said the lawsuit names Orphanides, and the Popular Bank’s former executive chairman Andreas Vgenopoulos. 

It was not clear yesterday who else has been named in the lawsuit claiming, among others, that the man was allegedly defrauded and misled by the Popular Bank. 

Thousands of people were affected when the island’s two biggest lenders, the Bank of Cyprus and Popular Bank, stopped paying interest and blocked access to the investors’ capital following losses on a Greek sovereign debt write-down in late 2001. 

Back in July, about 50 investors said they would sue, dissatisfied with the security and exchange commission’s (SEC) statement that the banks did follow regulations by listing risks. The SEC did allow for the possibility that people were not informed by experts, but said that was up to the Central Bank to investigate. 

In October, the investors renewed threats to sue, issuing an ultimatum to the finance ministry, the central bank, the Bank of Cyprus, the Popular Bank and SEC.

They want their bonds to be converted into five-year securities with 5.0 per cent interest rate and the option to retrieve 20 per cent a year. 

On that front, Mavrovouniotis told CyBC yesterday they were waiting on a report by investment firm Pimco on the Cypriot banks’ recapitalisation needs, which is expected next month.

Last week, a group of investors pushed past police lines and stormed into parliament, demanding their money.

A 28-YEAR-OLD Filipino domestic worker was killed yesterday morning in Limassol when she was sweeping the pavement in between two parked cars when a drunk driver hit one of the cars, throwing her onto the other vehicle. 

The accident happened at 6.40am.

The driver, a 26-year-old Cypriot man, was over three times the alcohol consumption limit, with a final breathalyser test showing 72 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres, although the legal limit is 22 microgrammes, police said.

The domestic worker from the Philippines was taken by ambulance to Limassol hospital, where the doctor on duty announced her dead on arrival.

The driver, who reports suggest was devastated, was taken to Limassol district court yesterday where he broke down in tears, still drunk but aware of what had happened, state broadcaster CyBC said.

The court remanded him for two days. 

The police said they needed to wait for the man to sober up before they could question him but said they would aim to get their investigation completed within two days, to enable the 26-year-old to spend Christmas with his family, CyBC said.

TV footage showed the two cars parked on the pavement outside the entrance of the Limassol home where the woman had been sweeping. The cars were parked on either side of the front gate. The one to the left hand side of the gate was hit at the back, and its back left wheel had shifted. When the driver hit that vehicle, the collision pushed it further forward hitting the woman who was thrown onto the other car.

THIS IS the season of good cheer goodwill to all men so our establishment was seriously considering closing down until it was over as the idea of adopting the Christmas spirit does not appeal to us. Everyone should stick to what they do best and showing goodwill to all men, I am not ashamed to admit, has never been our establishment’s strong point.

So if you were hoping for a Christmas edition that showed goodwill to all men including the incompetent comrade Tof and his Akelite poodles please stop reading now if you do not want to be disappointed. I will mention the one positive thing I could say about his presidency, to avoid accusations of anti-Tof bias – our dams are full of water.

The dams were empty when he took over in 2008 and we were suffering water cuts, but on his departure in February they will be full to overflowing. It is beyond even his incompetence to mess this up in the little time he has left in office. We can therefore safely say that he took up office when the dams were empty and on his departure they are full.

We can also say that when he took office, state coffers were full and on his departure they will not just be empty, but we will be needing billions in loans to avoid bankruptcy. The dams are full because his government’s decisions do not affect rainfall whereas the empty state coffers are the crowning achievement of his presidency.

ONE PERSON who embraced the season of goodwill was the district court judge who fined an unemployed father of three from Limassol €700 for stealing three halloumia, a pack of sliced lounza and pack of sliced turkey, worth €20 from a supermarket, in order to feed his family.

Talk about punishment that is out of proportion to the crime. The judge had to punish them man, as he had confessed to the crime, but €700? Where was a penniless man without a job, who had resorted to stealing in order to take some food home, going to find €700 from? 

The judge eventually showed his humanity by allowing the guilty man to pay his fine in four installments.

District court judges, we should not forget, filed appeals in the Supreme Court against the state’s decision to impose a five per cent cut on their fat salaries last year, so we should not be surprised if some of them show no compassion when an unemployed family man with no money is brought before them for stealing €20-worth of food.

THE HALLOUMI and lounza were stolen from the Orphanides supermarket in Limassol, which is the last company that should be reporting anyone stealing from it to the cops. The supermarket chain had almost certainly not paid the suppliers of the lounza and halloumi taken from its fridges because it is bankrupt.

But its management had no problem reporting the hapless, unemployed man to the police for stealing €20 worth of products. Orphanides supermarket, as everyone knows, owes its suppliers €85 million that it cannot pay them, but this is not regarded theft. It also owes the banks some €150 million that it cannot repay, but it feels a moral obligation to ensure that the law punishes a €20 theft.

The man who drove a once flourishing business into the ground, founder, chief executive and majority shareholder, Christos Orphanides has been displaying acute symptoms of Tofitis – sufferers of this disease have the tendency of putting the blame for all the problems they create on others, their main preference being the banks.

The supermarket boss blamed the banks for the continuing uncertainty over the future of his business, the day after he closed down 10 of his shops and sent home, on unpaid leave, 250 workers. He accused the banks of indecision over whether to appoint an administrator; he also wanted them to lend him more money. It was inconceivable for the banks to allow a company with hundreds of millions of assets to go under, he said.

A week earlier he also had the nerve to attack his suppliers for putting the squeeze on his supermarket chain. I suspect this was because suppliers did not comprehend the Orphanides business model by which they provided the company with products and the company did not pay for them.

 A DAIRY company that is owed €3 million was being particularly unreasonable in putting the squeeze on Orphanides, whose collapse could lead to the bankruptcy of many of its suppliers that borrowed money from the banks to keep going until Orph paid them.

Laiki and B of C, the company’s lenders, are considering allowing Orph sink and writing off the debts. This however would mean that they would also have to write off the bad debts of the supermarket chain’s suppliers that would follow Orph on the path to closure.

The company chairman has been trying to persuade the banks to appoint an administrator of his choosing and lend the company a few more millions to help it survive in the hope that some idiot would eventually buy the company. 

But if a mug willing to buy a failing business with debts of €250 million is not found Orph could get a strategic investor, like the one that will save Cyprus Airways. 

CONGRATULATIONS to DIKO deputy Athina Kyriakidou who has decided to take on the ‘candidate of the citizens’ Yiorkos Lillikas despite the latter’s decision to file a libel suit against her, for things she said on Astra radio, two weeks ago.

Lillikas, a committed supporter of transparency, called his lawyers and ordered them to take legal action as soon as Kyriakidou raised questions about the big advertising contracts his wife’s company, Marketway was securing from public organisations since he entered politics. Ms Kyriakidou also asked “how many poor people from Panayia (Lillikas’ village) became multi-millionaires in the last 15 years?” 

Was she suggesting that Lillikas was a multi-millionaire and if she was, since when is this defamatory? Why did Lillikas not explain that public organisations that awarded contracts to Marketway followed the correct procedures and that he never once used his influence to help his wife’s company?

Surely telling the truth is better than resorting to libel suits, which gives the mistaken impression that the multi-millionaire from Panayia had something to hide. Yiorkos got his communications strategy wrong on this.

THE IRREPRESSIBLE Kyriakidou was not intimidated by the libel suit, filed by the Tassos Papadopoulos law office.

During the budget debate on Wednesday she put a series of perfectly legitimate questions to Lillikas, regarding the Harvard Institute which he brought to Cyprus, at a cost in excess of 50 million bucks to the taxpayer, and installed his first cousin as its director, despite never engaging in rusfeti. 

He has still not answered any of Kyriakidou’s questions, regarding the Harvard Institute which turned to be a spectacular flop that has been taken over by TEPAK, despite being a firm believer in transparency and openness. Sadly the ‘multi-millionaire from Panayia’ cannot file another libel suit against Kyriakidou because her questions were posed in the legislature. 

WE WOULD like to ask a question regarding Lillikas that we hope will not lead to a libel suit. Why is the Ethnarch’s family such a keen supporter of his candidacy? Why is our leading political dynasty, backing his candidacy so zealously?

Even Ethnarch junior who totally disagrees with Yiorkos’ cheap, anti-bailout demagoguery is fervently supporting him for president. Everyone expected the Cypriot version of the Kennedys to back the Fuhrer especially after Nice Nik ensured the election of Junior’s brother Constantinos Yiorkadjis as Nicosia Mayor. 

Not only did they choose not to support him but Junior launched a vicious attack on Nik when DIKO was discussing which presidential candidate to back. This public show of ingratitude came us a big surprise, but it was reportedly ordered by the ethnarchic matriarch Fotini, who is calling all the shots in the family.

The matriarch is influenced by the youngest daughter of the family, Anastasia, who has always been a very big fan of Lillikas.

IF ANYONE still had doubts that the Tof government is the worst in the history of the Republic, they must have been dispelled on Monday when the finance ministry perm sec went to the House and openly blackmailed the management committees of the semi-governmental pension funds into lending the state €250 million. 

The perm sec told deputies that if the money was not given, after a couple of days the state would have to go for ‘selective default’ – in plain language, it would be bankrupt and be unable to pay wages. It would have been a great shame, after the great effort made by the comrade to save the 13th salaries, not to have the money to pay them. 

In the end, the pension fund committees gave in to the blackmail and saved the day, but this episode reminded us - as if we could have forgotten – by what a bunch of dim-witted amateurs we were being governed. They had been assuring us and the EU that our cash needs were covered, but finally remembered that the state needed €250 million to avoid declaring bankruptcy.

This government just cannot take a decision before we have reached the brink of disaster. It followed the same tactic with regard to the bailout. Only when the banking collapse was a few hours away did the comrade agree to the bailout. Without disaster looming he just cannot take a decision.

WE HAVE finally heard the real reason the comrade is not standing for re-election and it has nothing to do with his failure to solve the Cyprob. He is not standing because nobody told him there are elections in February. Incidentally 61 days left if the elections go to a second round and just 54 if they are decided on the first Sunday.  

PRESIDENT Christofias may have agreed to the memorandum of understanding and the legislature put this agreement into force by approving a long list of bills in the last week, but there is still appears a long way to go before the lenders release funds. Approval of the bailout is not just a formality, as some have suggested, but will require a lot more effort and planning on our part to reach this goal, as many complications have surfaced. Nothing could be simple or straightforward when a host of parties, with different interests are part of the decision-making process.

There have been press reports of a dispute between the IMF and the European Commission over who would provide the funds for the bailout, with the former taking the line that it would not contribute to the loan package, in its current form. According to a report, earlier this week, in the German newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung, the IMF supported a haircut of the government debt, on the grounds that Cyprus would be unable to pay the interest on the loan, even after the memorandum provisions were implemented. 

Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly categorically denied there was such a possibility, insisting the IMF had not made any such reference. The head of the euro group Jean-Claude Juncker also denied the report, saying that “on my part I want to rule out this possibility.” However, Juncker will be stepping down at the end January and behind closed doors, European politicians and technocrats are expressing serious concerns about the sustainability of the debt. On Friday, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, pressed to say whether there would be a haircut of the Cyprus debt, said nothing could be ruled out and everything was on the table.

Another hair-cut would be problematic for the euro group, which had insisted the Greek hair-cut was a one-off, as it would shatter its credibility and put additional pressure on the euro. But the fact that it has not been ruled out by the German government should give cause for concern. Even more worrying is the threat of the IMF not to contribute to the bailout package, which Germany considers of critical importance for the obvious reason that it does not want to be burdened with a bigger share of the funding. This dispute complicates things for Cyprus, even though an IMF suggestion that its contribution to the bailout could be funded by Russia has not been ruled out by Moscow. President Putin said on Friday this was a possibility, confirming earlier reports that Russia would be willing to lend money to Cyprus within the framework of an EU bailout.

While this would resolve the issue of IMF funding, which Germany insisted on, we would then have to deal with debt sustainability. Although, everyone is said to be waiting for the Pimco report about the financing needs of the banks, it is considered certain at the Commission and the European Central Bank that even with our best case scenario – banks requiring €9.3 billion – the debt would be unsustainable. An ECB board member, quoted by Reuters of Friday, confirmed this point. “It is already foreseeable that after the final data, the financing need will be so high that the debt level will be very high and unsustainable,” said Joerg Asmussen, adding that measures to achieve a budget surplus and privatisations would then be looked at.

Would President Christofias give his consent to privatisations after insisting that he would never agree to them? And to achieve a budget surplus, even more austerity measures would be required, that it is difficult seeing any Cypriot politician agreeing to. Christofias would be more than happy not to sign a memorandum including privatisations and additional measures, leaving the responsibility to his successor. But would the state have any money to meet its financial obligations by the time the new president is sworn in? What if the debt would be unsustainable even after privatisations and more austerity measures? 

This may seem a wild shot, but the only other option is for the Cyprus Central Bank to propose to the troika that the methodology that was used for defining non-performing loans, for so many years, was not changed so abruptly. The abrupt change of methodology has added billions to the banks’ financing needs. We should argue that first the legal framework needed to be put in place and a three- to four-year adjustment period given before the new methodology for calculating NPLs was fully adopted. This would be good, regular practice that would drastically reduce the banks’ financing needs and make the debt sustainable, something which would suit all parties concerned.

We may have left it late, but it is worth a shot, because it is the only way debt sustainability would cease to be an issue.