Deputy Tourism Minister Costas Koumis on Tuesday said the 19-year-old he planned to hire has withdrawn her interest and will not be working for him.

Koumis was speaking to the state broadcaster, a day after the hubbub over news that he had decided to hire the teen with no university degree.

The deputy minister clarified the teenager was to have been hired as his communications consultant.

He said that following the noise generated over the affair, the 19-year-old herself contacted the ministry on Tuesday morning and said she did not wish to work there.

“I called her myself to see if she’s alright. Many [verbal] attacks have been made against her, as well as against myself and my family. They should let us do our work. I don’t know if I will hire anybody now, because whoever did get hired would end up in the crosshairs.”

On Monday, the planned employment of the 19-year-old quickly became a series of memes on social media, while opposition parties piled on.

President Nikos Christodoulides said criticism of government actions and procedures is welcome, but also appealed to critics not to “cannibalise” the concerned individuals.

As for Koumis, he said he had been unaware that the teenager had worked for Christodoulides’ election campaign.

He also said there had been no contact between himself and the president over the planned hiring.

But he added: “So what if she was on Mr Christodoulides’ campaign team, what’s the problem?”

The deputy minister insisted that no law would have been broken had the 19-year-old landed the job.

“She does not need to have a university degree. I respect the suggestions of the Audit Office. If the system does needs fixing, we should fix it.

“The model contract specifies neither the criteria nor the terms of employment. We followed the model contract. I don’t think that the problem for the junior ministry or the state is the hiring of a 19-year-old. There exists an outdated recruitment framework.”

Koumis was alluding to a model contract pertaining to advisors and consultants to ministers, first appearing in the 2016 state budget. But that model contract did not define the criteria or the terms of employment.

In 2019, the then presidency rejected proposals for enacting a legal framework specifying the remuneration and other benefits of commissioners and special advisors, with rules spelling out the necessary qualifications of candidates.

The presidency said such a framework would create too much inflexibility.

Despite this, cabinet did approve a comprehensive framework for the employment of such consultants on March 27, 2019.

Under this framework, consultants to the president or ministers should be at least 21 years old and have a university degree.

But this framework is not laid down in law.

Auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides called the planned hiring of the 19-year-old “wrongful.”

The government insists no law was broken.