There is something seriously wrong

I wonder if the authorities are up to the job of carrying out their duties for the benefit of Cyprus and its people. The examples that I often provide are not the full list of oddities and there are other numerous and shocking events.

I will report some that we were involved in based on our own experience.

Let’s start with the most shocking experience, which involves the Paralimni Municipality.

According to the mayor, the municipality was licenced by the government to use a state owned beach plot, within the seashore protection zone (meaning that nothing can be built on it) for its own use to run a kiosk.

What a kiosk is, as we all know, is a small building to sell newspapers, perhaps ice-creams and juices. The municipality duly sub-leased the plot and the new sub tenant, has erected a grill bar, and advertises the establishment as such, including signs for selling food, alcoholic drinks, in addition to a sign stating that the set up was licenced and has all necessary permits.

We know that this was far from true (it has no building licence at all and none from the tourism authorities), with the latter telling us that the establishment is operating illegally.

We have submitted a complaint to the municipality, the district office, the commerce ministry, the auditor-general and the ombudsman. The district officer replied that he cannot intervene because he is not the authority in charge of planning permits. He added that he wrote to the mayor who did not even bother to respond. The establishment is still there and no action has been taken.

Then there is the government which in its effort to keep check of the ever-rising rents, has introduced an incentive programme in order to increase supply and thus reduced the ill effects of the restricted supply.

We wrote to the Ministry of Interior to say that the incentives given were wrong and they will not reach the required goal, and we now have the admission by the chairman of the governmental body involved confirming that the incentives did not work.

So, after almost two years we are back to square one.

Now let’s take hooligans and corruption in football. This is an issue that has been going on for years. We even had a new corruption incident last year, and the supervising football authority did absolutely nothing. Even the hooligans seem to have the support of some MPs, to abolish the ID card for those attending games in an effort to keep control.

Our police force and coroners are both a joke. We have to bring coroners from abroad to get the truth. When local coroners are used they often have two or three on a case. Some noteworthy instances have been the dog attack in Paphos, the serial killer case and the parking incident of abuse against a Russian lady in Larnaca.

Coming to our wise MPs, we see maybe the worst behaviour yet, from instances of sexual harassment to expensive trips abroad, like on to Australia by a group of MPs costing the state €150.000, and accepting all sorts of gifts without disclosing them.

As a country that aspires to become an international financial centre and a first-class holiday destination, we should care more about our reputation in other countries.

Antonis Loizou & Associates EPE – Real Estate Valuers, Estate Agents & Property Consultants, www.aloizou.com.cy, [email protected]