GIVEN the borderline lawful way in which he has been leeching off the taxpayer, you dread to think what the Diko-Edek independent candidate Nikos Christodoulides, would do if he was elected president and running the show.
Last week Politis revealed how he had claimed overseas posting allowance four months after returning to Nicosia as head of the foreign minister’s office in March 2013. At €4,860 a month, the taxpayer was lumbered with a total cost in excess of 19 grand, which the candidate posing as Mr Clean, was not legally entitled to.
On his return to Kyproulla, he should have notified the accounts department of the foreign ministry that he was back, but he slyly avoided doing so and carried on collecting his overseas allowance for another four months. Politis, whose report was confirmed by the foreign ministry, said that Christodoulides had insisted on taking the money because his family had been “financially burdened” at the time. Which family wasn’t in 2013?
This illegality was made lawful, subsequently, by the foreign ministry issuing a memo three months later, in June, authorising the payment of the overseas posting allowance by citing the “financial burden faced by the Christodoulides family.”
Is it standard practice for public employees, facing financial difficulties to be paid thousands of euro over and above what they are legally entitled to? Asked about the matter by Politis, Mr Clean’s response was “you should ask the foreign ministry.” Told that the paper had asked the foreign ministry and it had confirmed the over-payment, his response was “you should ask the foreign ministry.”
THE PERMANENT secretary who had signed the memo, authorising the charitable payment of 19 grand to Christodoulides, was Akel presidential candidate Andreas Mavroyiannis, illustrating his largesse with the taxpayer’s money, something that will go down well with his backers.
Mavroyiannis told Politis that at the time he was appointed, in March 2013, he had “heated discussions with Mr Christodoulides, regarding school allowances and the cuts decided by the foreign ministry.”
He gave no other details, but could this have had anything to do with the fact that Mr and Mrs Christodoulides were sending their kids to an expensive international school in Brussels, where they were posted before his return to Kyproulla to commence his quest for power?
All other members of the Cyprus representation in Brussels sent their kids to an international school that was free, but it was not good enough for the Christodoulides family and as the taxpayer would be picking up the bill they chose the fee-paying school.
I just hope that if he is elected president, his family will not be facing financial burdens, because if he can take money from the taxpayer he is not entitled to, when he is an obscure ministry official, what would he take as the numero uno?
NONE of the Diko candidate’s powerful media backers mentioned anything about the Politis report. I refer to dear Phil that has been preparing him for the presidency since his days as foreign minister and Alpha TV, which is owned by the Alphamega supermarket chain has been using all its influence to promote him.
Alphamega’s decision is not based on supermarket owner’s solidarity – the candidate’s father-in-law owns a supermarket in Limassol but is not in the same league as Alphamega. I do not know what it is based on and I can only assume that Christodoulides used his unrivalled slimy skills to win over the elderly big boss and driving force of the company Andreas Papaellinas.
Rumours doing the rounds are that it was on Papaellinas’ advice the Alphamega candidate opted not to take part in the September television debates. After his disastrous appearance on the CyBC debate, he was told by his backers not to go on TV again with rival candidates.
It was strange advice, assuming my informants were correct, bearing in mind that an opinion poll conducted for Alpha TV, a few weeks after the TV debate fiasco, showed their candidate’s popularity increasing by six percentage points.
WHEN it was announced that some boring accountant was appointed president of the board of Rik, you would have thought that he would have introduced some financial prudence at a corporation that is a big drain on the taxpayer.
Michael Michael, as he is called, may have been clueless about public broadcasting, news operations or programme-making, but he would have been good with numbers and been able to save the taxpayer a few millions by cutting on the legendary profligacy of Rik.
He did nothing of the sort. On the contrary, he sanctioned the opening of new permanent posts on the A13 pay-scale (over 50 grand a year) and these were given to mediocrities that were politically very well-connected. Now Rik has the biggest percentage of employees on the A13 pay scale of all semi-governmental organisations.
This is not all, one of the employees that was made permanent has now persuaded MM to appoint her director of radio, even though she has no experience of radio work. The post, which has been empty for years, commands a salary on the A15 pay scale, which is what ministry perm secs are paid. MM appears to have disowned his accounting instincts when he took over at Rik.
LIFESTYLE websites were competing for superlatives to describe the birthday bash of fabulously wealthy socialite Katia Theodotou, that was held at her palatial home in Limassol and had a Moroccan theme, hence the waiters in Moroccan djellabias. Prez Nik was one of the celebrated guests.
“Magnificent decoration with thousand of rose petal in the pool,” said Hello, which informed us about a “super-glamorous party with magical scenes in the garden of her house.” The plastic surgery enhanced glam set of Kyproulla were at the party, the flower bill for which could have bought someone a luxury car.
“Flowers of many colours, candles, carpets, ethnic music and shiny lights created a magical atmosphere,” reported the showbiz website, which was impressed with the “ethnic theme”. All websites carried the same pictures, which would suggest they were distributed by the party organisers, on the instructions of the birthday girl, who is of the “if you’ve got it, flaunt it,” school of thought.
You have to admire the way Theodotou, who is of the Alphamega clan, enjoys showing off her wealth, lavish spending, luxury lifestyle and love of partying to us plebs – she is very active on Instagram. She may have to show a little restraint now that people cannot afford to pay their electricity bills, because they may be a little less tolerant of her Marie Antoinette attitude.
ALL PARTIES issued patriotic announcements condemning the incident in the buffer zone in Denia, where Turkish soldiers ordered a Greek Cypriot shepherd to leave and subsequently pelted him with stones. They all called on the government to take a tough stance, but Elam’s announcement won the complete lack of perspective stakes.
“Everyone must bear in mind that Turkish expansionism will not be defeated with niceties or concessions. This is why we demand, at last, to stand up, asserting ourselves and making the EU face its responsibilities for the tolerance it displays.”
It has not crossed Elam’s mind that EU might have slightly more important problems to face than the throwing of stones at a shepherd by Turkish soldiers. Even in normal circumstances this would not be an issue for the European Council.
IT WAS rather sad to see that the sick commie spirit of Comrade Tof lives on his son Christos, who is an Akel deputy. After the death of the great Mikhail Gorbachev, Tof junior posted the following words of wisdom:
“Gorbachev has died… A traitor to his country and his people. A traitor of the working people and of peoples internationally.” It just goes to show that even if you have the IQ of a village idiot it is no obstacle to being elected an Akel deputy, especially if your surname is Christofias.
