Our View: Latest appointment fiasco shows president ignoring election pledges

It only took a few hours for the appointment of Michalis Michael as member of the Public Service Commission to degenerate into farce. Within hours of his appointment, social media was flooded with disparaging comments about his university qualifications, questioning their validity and alleging they were received from academic institutions of dubious repute.

Within 24 hours of his appointment, Michael tendered his resignation, and President Nikos Christodoulides happily accepted it. It is difficult to believe the resignation was not forced by the presidential palace, having quickly recognised the scale of its blunder and calculating that this embarrassing fiasco would have less political cost than keeping Michael in his well-paid position.

No thought appears to have been given to how Christodoulides’ election declarations, about public appointments would look. During the campaign, he said he would set special criteria for the appointment of public officials and that a ‘council’ would evaluate candidates for a post and make suggestions to the council of ministers. Not even the most basic criteria were considered in the case of Michael, who was, reportedly, the choice of a party leader.

The fact that he was forced to resign in the 24 hours after his appointment conclusively proved that no criteria had to be satisfied – the evaluation council had not even been set up. This for an important, highly-paid post, the Public Service Commission being responsible for appointments and promotions in the civil service and, theoretically, ensuring that these are meritocratic. The government, obviously, saw no inconsistency in having a beneficiary of nepotism ensuring there was no nepotism in the civil service.

Christodoulides wasted no time in announcing a new member for the Commission, a woman who has been on the public payroll for more than 20 years, being appointed to a range of highly-paid posts. Loukia Christodoulou served as member of the Tax Council for seven years, member of the Commision for the Protection of Competition for three years and as its president for 12 years. This was another nepotistic appointment that made a mockery of another Christodoulides’ election pledge – political renewal and the promotion of capable young people.

In the case of the ombudsperson’s position, the government advertised the post in two publications but before there was time to evaluate CVs submitted by applicants, the council of ministers decided to give the incumbent another term in the post. This may have been the right decision, but Christodoulides had shown complete disregard for the appointment procedures he said he would put in place to rationalise the system.

It is rather worrying that such a level of arrogance is being displayed by the president before he has even completed two months in office.