President Nikos Christodoulides received an allowance for living abroad while he was in fact in Cyprus, it emerged on Thursday, as the matter was discussed at the House audit committee.

Auditor-general Andreas Papaconstantinou presented the findings of an audit into the foreign ministry published earlier this year, covering the period 2021 to 2022.

Though the report does not name Christodoulides, the details depict the current President as the diplomat in question, detailing how his wife was also serving as a diplomat at the time.

It served as one of the many bones of contention between the president and former auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides.

For three months, Christodoulides received the overseas living allowance, even though he had been called to return to Cyprus urgently. Until the foreign ministry issued its formal decision on the matter Christodoulides continued receiving the funds.

The foreign ministry had justified it because the diplomat’s family was still abroad, however Papaconstantinou said “the minute he returned to Cyprus, the allowance should have been cut off, even though we understand it wasn’t a clear case because he was called to reach Cyprus urgently.

“His family was abroad and there were some particularities.”

The auditor noted a lack of clarity in the foreign ministry’s guidelines – gray areas when it comes to when exactly the overseas living allowance is cut off.

Papaconstantinou called for better oversight within the ministry as there were cases where invoices were not properly stamped, omissions in reconciling funds, delayed recognition of accounts receivable, or recognition of accounts receivable where no actual cash flow was generated.

He also identified issues with the conversion rate when diplomats were paid abroad, to which the foreign ministry said it had taken on board the issue and was in talks with the state treasury to set an official exchange rate.

The official told MPs there was a €45,000 rent allowance paid out between 2018 and 2021 to a diplomat abroad, who withheld the fact that he lived in an apartment owned by a company which he had shares in.

An Audit Office report last year found that Christodoulides should return to the state over €18,000 he should not have received in paid leave, and come clean as to how much of the almost €40,000 he used in car mileage was for personal use, ensuring it goes back to state coffers.

Another special report on police activity in 2023, suggested police were using a service vehicle to drive Christodoulides’ children to school.