Fresh delay as asset declarations bill referred to new House

A bill improving the admittedly useless legislation on asset statements filed by state officials was referred to the new parliament on Tuesday after House ethics committee MPs failed to iron out certain technical issues.

“We will not go ahead with the vote because we think it (text) still has some flaws and we want to produce something that will stand against criticism,” committee chairman, Disy MP, Zaharias Zahariou said.

The current legislation on asset statements does not compel politicians to disclose all their assets or explain where they came from.

The law states that state officials must publish their statement when they assume office and when they leave and every three years from then on as long as they are still serving.

The statements must be filed within three months of either assuming or leaving office.

Since their publication, the statements have been used to criticise or mock politicians.

The statements are awash with inconsistencies and discrepancies, posing the question of whether the disclosure defeats the stated purpose of promoting transparency and checking whether public officials engage in unwarranted enrichment from holding office.

Also recurrent is the slapdash manner in which many of the individuals concerned fill out the various fields.

Often, entries in fields were crossed out and replaced by barely legible handwriting.

A white paper prepared by experts described the legislation as useless, suggesting that a section of those tasked with cleaning up corruption sought perpetuation of the problem for their own reasons.

“The legislation at the moment is a ruin that cannot be restored or a rag that cannot be patched up,” according to the study.

On Tuesday, Zahariou said the new parliament should be able to complete the process by the summer. He said most of the work has been done with only certain technical details left to sort out.

“The political message the committee is conveying is clear: we have received the messages sent by civil society in relation with transparency, the asset statement, and the technocratic audit,” Zahariou said.

The bill includes independent audits, stricter accountability processes, and even property seizure if the individual deliberately omits declaring assets in Cyprus and abroad.

Parliament is due to dissolve this week,  ahead of the May 30 elections.