A contract for the controversial roadworks in Akamas is in the process of being terminated on the grounds of violations of its terms, Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou told the House environment committee on Wednesday.

She added that this would not affect the initial plans for the completion of the project by 2027, but that the project would be completed with a reduced environmental footprint and under strict observation.

A supplementary special ecological evaluation for the first phase of the project has already been made, planning is going ahead, and the study will be submitted in January 17, Panayiotou said.

She added that on February 3, the relevant ad hoc committee would be convened to receive the roadwork plans, and that the public works department would be invited as specialists on roadwork issues.

Committee chairman and Green party MP Charalampos Theopemptou asked if water and electricity pipes had been removed, and Panayiotou said they had.

“Our aim remains to complete the project by 2027, as was the initially planning, with a reduced environmental footprint and strict environmental supervision. Akamas is not a project but an environmental treasure which we want to preserve,” she said.

The forestry department, as the contracting authority, would begin works before the summer, she added, saying that three administrative investigations had been concluded and disciplinary offences were being examined by the legal service.

Regarding compensatory measures in Akamas, Panayiotou said they were within the set timeframe and some compensation, for example for the loss of use of property by owners, had already been completed.

Later on Wednesday, Cyfield, the company which had been contracted to undertake the project, insisted that it had been “forced to terminate the contract for the project’s implementation”.

It said the decision to terminate the project had been taken “due to a long suspension of work since December 2023, which far exceeded the 84 days provided for by the contract and to which the company had agreed without any financial requirements”.

The company also said it was owed money by the government which the government had “failed to pay within the stipulated timeframes”.

“Throughout the suspension of work, we have made every effort to continue and complete the work or to terminate the contract through an amicable settlement, and despite the violation of contractual terms, we continued to renew the letters of guarantee until December 15 with the aim of reaching a mutually acceptable solution,” it said.

However, it added, “this was not possible, and we were forced to send a letter to terminate the contract”.

The government and Cyfield had signed the contract to upgrade Akamas’ road network under former President Nicos Anastasiades in September 2022, and the contract’s cancellation is the latest of a growing number of Anastasiades-era public contracts to be cancelled under his successor Nikos Christodoulides.

The contracts for both the road between Paphos and Polis Chrysochous and the for the development of the Liopetri river were torn up within the space of 24 hours in November, while contracts for both the Vasiliko liquefied natural gas terminal and the Larnaca marina were terminated by the government last summer.

Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades had said the responsibility lies with the previous government for signing contracts with unsuitable companies.

“Those who designed this offer, those who approved this offer, obviously in a way which presented particular problems, bear responsibility. It is not the first time that we see this weakness,” he said.

However, while Akel MP Valentinos Fakontis echoed this sentiment regarding the previous government, he also pointed a finger at the incumbent.

He said it is “clear that the responsibility for the bad agreement is borne by the previous government of Anastasiades and Disy,” but noted that “after 18 months in power, the current government cannot continue to watch as a mere spectator as one major project after another is terminated.

In response to the cancellations, accountant-general’s office submitted a list of suggested amendments to the procedural framework surrounding public contracts to the House legal committee.

Those amendments, if passed into law, would see changes to the approval process and other aspects of the laws regarding public contracts, including the way those contracts are amended after being signed.

One suggested change was the appointment of an official belonging to another contract authority as a “contract coordinator”, while other changes included stipulations regarding on-site inspections of the projects being carried out, and a codification of the framework regarding contract termination.

The “National Akamas Forest Plan” to allow construction to take place in some areas of the peninsula was rolled out in September 2023, a year after the contract with Cyfield was signed.

However, construction lasted a mere matter of weeks before environmental groups cried foul, saying works had been carried out in violation of “precisely stipulated, non-negotiable conditions attached to the plan”.

Soon after, Christodoulides said he was “personally annoyed” by evidence that construction work had deviated from the agreed plans, adding his voice to the cries for construction works to be halted.

Cyfield then announced all construction works on the road network in the Akamas peninsula would be halted until all issues were settled, while members of the House environment committee described the government as “pathetic”

Then-Agriculture Minister Petros Xenophontos said works had deviated from the original plan and called for an investigation into how that happened, before days later saying construction works would proceed and would not be suspended under any circumstances.