Of Eleftheria Paizanou
The members of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance have reached their limits with some semi-governmental organizations, which have not yet submitted their budgets for 2022 to the Parliament. It is estimated that more than 20 legal entities under public law have not submitted their budgets to Parliament and have not yet clarified when they are expected to submit them. Every year, a total of 45 organizations submit their budgets to Parliament.
In fact, according to the Constitution and the law on fiscal responsibility, the budgets of the semi-governmental organizations must be submitted to the Parliament three months before the end of the year, ie the end of September, as is done with the state budget. It is worth noting that those semi-governmental organizations that start the year without having their budgets approved by the Parliament, in January and February operate with the twelfths. During these two months, the state payments are made directly from the Fixed Fund of the Republic, exclusively for the payment of salaries, pensions, allowances and to cover operating expenses. In the meantime, when the February twelfths are exhausted, those semi-government who do not have a budget from March will operate illegally. Out of rage, the chairwoman of the Committee and MP of DIKO, Christiana Erotokritou, made strict recommendations and warns that the twelfths of February may be exhausted and after that the Committee will approve the budgets.
Whatever the Commission can do
In a letter to the Minister of Finance, Konstantinos Petridis, she states that the Finance Committee is not committed to examining the budgets of the semi-governmental organizations, which, as she states, have not been legally submitted, within the narrow timeframe remaining until the end of February 2022 and the allowed twelfths are exhausted. At the same time, he points out that “the Finance Committee declares that the affected legal entities under public law (NPDD) as well as the competent ministries bear the sole responsibility for the possible operation of the NPDD illegally after the expiration of this deadline.” At the same time, the Commission, according to the letter, states that it fully reserves the right to consider the budgets of the semi-governmental organizations that will be submitted to it from now on, based on its wider pending priorities, which extend to other bills and proposals. Concluding, Ms. Erotokritou expresses her strong dissatisfaction for the non-compliance of a large number of semi-governmental organizations and the ministries to which they belong due to the non-submission of budgets within the legal timeframes. In her statements, the chairwoman of the Committee, hurt the attitude of some legal entities under public law towards the Parliament, emphasizing that the organizations can operate in twelve terms until the end of February. Last month, a letter to the competent ministers was sent by the Speaker of Parliament.
They run to catch up
Yesterday, the Finance Committee examined the budgets of the Cyprus Capital Market Commission, the Cyprus Agricultural Payments Organization, the Cyprus Human Resources Development Authority and the Special Fund of the Vocational Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities. The budgets of the Fiscal Council, the Foundation for State Scholarships, the Cyprus Theater Organization and the Cyprus Land Development Organization will be approved in plenary on Thursday.
