The Auditor General, Odysseas Michailidis, “pulls the ear” of the General Accountant, Rea Georgiou, for the fact that he did not cut the salaries of the new judges as he did with the other civil servants and retirees of the State Service and asked to be informed “how much money Public from the non-implementation of the relevant memorandum laws “.
At the same time, it leaves indirect peaks against the judges who, unlike the rest of the civil servants, ended from 2017 the memorandum cuts that had been set at 20% on the salaries they did not receive, as a “voluntary contribution”.
The Audit Office with a relevant letter also refers to the opinion of the Attorney General of the Republic dated 28/9/2016, which concerned six judges (who were appointed on 2/12/2013) and in which he indicated that from the moment it is about new appointments, the decisions of the Supreme Court, which considered the reductions in their earnings in 2013 unconstitutional, do not apply.
The letter of the Auditor General to the General Accountant states that according to the opinion “the offer to appoint Judges should include the Laws on the freezing of surcharges and indexation allowances and memorandum cuts and not only the voluntary contribution of 20% which had been accepted by all the Judges, which, by the way, was terminated, from 1/1/2017, by all the Judges “.
Odysseas Michailidis also points out to the General Accountant: “Despite the relevant opinion of the Legal Service on the matter, but also the repeated suggestions of the Audit Service, you continued, during the preparation of the payroll, not . Your decision not to apply the provisions of the relevant Laws to the Judges appointed after their effective dates is contrary to what you did for all other civil servants, for whom you directly applied the laws, pending the adjudication of the relevant appeals to the Administrative Court and the outcome of the relevant appeal to the Supreme Court. In the case of the Judges, on the other hand, you acted differently, disregarding the principle that the Laws apply and those who consider themselves to be harmed go to court. This resulted in the loss of money for the State “.
As mentioned in the letter, the above issue was raised again in a letter from the Audit Office to the Supreme Court, which with a reply letter dated. 30/6/2021, informed the Auditor General that he adopted the inclusion of the relevant provisions of the legislation, as the opinion of the Legal Service, date. 28/9/2016, in the letters accepting the appointment of Judges. This has been applied in practice, in relation to the letters of acceptance of the newly appointed Judges and the reductions in their remuneration provided by law.
The Auditor General refers to the circular of the Ministry of Finance dated 6/5/2020 which refers to the Decision of the Supreme Court on Appeals brought by the Republic against decisions of the Administrative Court, which ratified the legal correctness, among other things, of its provisions. on the Reduction of the Remuneration and Pensions of the Official Employees and Retirees of the State Service and of the Wider Public Sector Law (L.168 (|) / 2012 and the Amending Law 31 (1) / 2013).
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