Audit and Legal Services preparing for war

The audit office on Tuesday said it was ready to deal with any steps aimed at removing Auditor General Odysseas Michaelides from his post.

“If they want to proceed today, we are ready. Next month, we are ready. Next year, we are ready,” spokesman for the audit office Marios Petrides said.

“It’s been years we have had information” that the legal service was seeking to take steps aimed at removing Michaelides from his post, he added.

Though he described it as “obvious” and a long time coming, Petrides underlined “the legal service’s intentions became clear during the golden passport investigations.”

Michaelides is working with the law office of Christos Clerides, George Triantafyllides, and Pambos Ioannides.

Their services are being paid for privately by Michaelides, the spokesman clarified.

Meanwhile, the legal service is cooperating with the L. Papaphilippou, and the Kallis & Kallis firms. Should the case go before the supreme court, the legal service cannot appear both as a witness and represent itself, hence the need for external lawyers.

The legal service was not immediately available for comment on if and when it would proceed to take the matter to Supreme Court.

The audit office and legal service have long been at loggerheads, however the matter reached breaking point when deputy attorney-general Savvas Angelides in an interview with Kathimerini on Sunday said that the Supreme Court should rule whether Michaelides should be removed from his post.

Michaelides described it as an obvious threat and an act of revenge, after the office accused Angelides of conflict of interest for moving to acquit a client of his former law firm from criminal prosecution.

President Nikos Christodoulides did not respond when asked if the legal service was going to take the matter to the Supreme Court, saying “you can ask the legal service.

“I am not a representative of the legal service. This is not a pleasant situation.”

Christodoulides said he had nothing more to add from what he said the previous day, that it is a “very unpleasant development.” He urged both independent institutions to collaborate based on the constitution.

The president underlined the government has plans he announced on January 29 on reforming the “two top institutions.”

Based on these proposals, efforts are underway “which have nothing to do with the recent events.”

Both the legal service and audit office are independent institutions, and their chiefs can only be removed through a Supreme Court decision or if they voluntarily resign.

A day earlier, Michaelides reported the latest developments to the EU Commission and the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions.