Sewerage board causing a stink over misuse of employee

An unpleasant smell is hovering above the Nicosia sewerage board where an employee was pressured into being a manager’s servant – for ten years.

The organisation’s council are holding their nose and taking disciplinary action against the manager after allegations emerged that a worker was carrying out the manager’s personal and private duties – along with those of the manager’s family. 

Those included the contractual worker being ordered – during work hours – to wait in line for Apoel season tickets upon release, taking the manager’s daughter to and from school (because the bus did not suit her), driving from Nicosia to Kannavia to pick up the son of a family member because they did not like the countryside, and many other bizarre requests. 

Other allegations include driving to and from the wife of the manager’s house to collect items that she had forgotten – such as her mobile phone or purse – and deliver them to her at the offices of a ministry where she worked. 

The police and auditor general’s office caught a whiff of the case after they received the worker’s complaints, where he detailed a slew of strange, menial tasks he was ordered to carry out for the manager. 

The worker detailed that these incidents occurred between 2009-2019 and included the use of the organisation’s service vehicle. 

The manager is accused of habitually using the public car for personal use on the weekends and holidays for activities such as hunting.  

Determined to flush out such behaviour, the sewerage board’s council met on Monday to decide how to proceed after a 90-page report was filed on the matter by the board’s general director Yiannos Koukoularides.  

He said that the case will be filed to auditor general Odysseas Michaelides, adding that: “After that, following a detailed investigation of the available facts and information, if he so chooses, [Michaelides] may refer it to the attorney general for further inspection to ascertain whether criminal offences have been committed.” 

Koukoularides further emphasised in the report that the public service has been defrauded of a significant sum of money which should be reclaimed from the offenders.  

Daily Politis reported that Achilleas Emilianides is the board’s legal advisor who is reviewing charges of embezzlement and abuse of power.