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Under protests and with amendments, the TEPAK budget was passed

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Υπo διαμαρτυ ρεκετογεστη ε οοομoσ ΤΕΑΚ > It was voted unanimously by the Plenary of the Parliament. </p> <p>With intense criticism for the delay in the submission of the TEPAK budget and also for the illegal way in which the university staff was paid in March, the Plenary of the Parliament unanimously approved the TEPAK budget.</p> <p>At the same time, three amendments of DIKO and DIPA. The two concern the crossing of the purchase of services and the expenses for rents by TEPAK, without first securing the written consent of the Education Committee.</p> <p>The third amendment removes from the budget a provision, based on which the responsibilities of the controlling officer of TEPAK are transferred from the Director of Administration and Finance to the head of the Studies and Student Welfare Service. It is noted that the reservations surrounding the matter were the ones that led to the delay in the passing of the budget.</p> <p>The TEPAK budget is balanced and foresees expenses of €100,911,679 and an equal amount of income. In particular, the budgeted expenses of TEPAK for the year 2024 concern, among others, current expenses (€38,431,982), operational expenses (€7,344,732), administrative expenses (€5,889,402), capital expenses (€26,415,543) and unforeseen expenses and reserve (€22,830,020).</p> <p>During the debate, the President of the Parliament Annita Dimitriou criticized the late submission of the budget in April, with the result that the Parliament is being blackmailed into voting on it as an urgent matter, without all the questions of the MPs having been resolved. He said that something like this is happening for the first time in history. He also mentioned that TEPAK said that it submitted the budget several months ago and that the delay was not due to them.</p> <p>Environmental Movement – Citizens Cooperation MP Charalambos Theopeptou also criticized the delay in the budget. However, he said that he is voting against the amendment for the control officer at TEPAK because such a thing constitutes an intervention in the way of operation and the internal affairs of the institution.</p> <p>The Member of Parliament of DIPA – Cooperation Alekos Tryfonidis spoke of an inexplicable delay in the budget, however he said that it is mostly due to “the decency of some” and the fact that an opinion was requested from the Legal Service on the issue of the controlling officer. He emphasized that the controlling officer should be the Director of Financial Services, and for this they submitted a relevant amendment.</p> <p>DIKO Member of Parliament Chrysanthos Savvidis stated that the Parliament, although it has no responsibility for the delay, brought the budget to the Plenary so that people would not be left unpaid. He noted that the Auditor General had correctly advised Parliament on the issue of the audit officer, that he should be the Director of Financial Services, and expressed the hope that MPs would support their amendment.</p> <p>DIKO Member of Parliament Pavlos Mylonas stated that the control of TEPAK's finances must be independent and no one spoke of restricting academic freedom. He added that the Auditor General indicated that neither the Rector nor any subordinate of the Finance Director can exercise control and this position was initially agreed by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and the Legal Service, but then magically decided to appoint a transitional officer for the matter.</p> <p>EDEK Member of Parliament Ilias Myrianthou suggested that the budget be submitted in two parts so that in the future there would be no delay, especially in the issue of payroll. The first part, he said, should concern operating costs and fixed costs that are predictable and the second the development costs that are likely to come through European programs, which can be filed later.</p> <p>AKEL Member of Parliament Christos Christofides said that if the TEPAK budget did not hide a great tragedy of people who do not know if they will be paid, it would be an amazing farce written and executed by the Government. He added that TEPAK workers were paid last month illegally from the TEPAK Pension Fund. He also criticized the fact that, despite the delay, a supplementary budget is soon expected to come before Parliament.</p> <p>He also stated that the culmination of this manipulation is the Cabinet's decision to appoint a troika to TEPAK from representatives of the Ministry of Education, Finance and the General Accounts Office to monitor the action, payments and the whole activity, which he described as a direct attack on TEPAK and the academic freedom of the institution. He added that these follow the Government's recent decision to appoint a declared judo-fascist to the TEPAK Board of Directors.</p> <p>Regarding the matter of the control officer, he said that the Government should consult with the co-governing parties on the matter. He added that it is good when the coalition parties take advantage of the Auditor General's offer to exercise their influence, so that when the institution is under attack the President stops playing Pontius Pilate. He also stated that they will vote against the amendment for the control officer that will put the institution in trouble and lead to a prolonged crisis of the Government's agreement with TEPAK.</p> <p>The President of DIKO Nikolas Papadopoulos expressed disappointment because TEPAK, one of the most important institutions of the state, has left a history of scandals, mismanagement, and frauds, while it should have been doubly and triply careful for the proper management of finances. He added that the delay was the fault of the management at TEPAK because they asked for something absurd to change the control officer for financial management. He said that if this was done he would be the only agency that would audit his own and the Auditor General has rightly said that it is illegal and irregular.</p> <p>DISY Member of Parliament Giorgos Karoulas said that the schedules created by this delay are suffocating for the Parliament and act as a threat to the body. He added that valuable time was wasted and the Parliament is being blackmailed into approving the budget.</p> <p>He also said that the matter of the controlling officer could be resolved earlier if there was a relevant agreement. He stated that an institutional issue is created since the responsibility of the controlling officer is assigned to lower-ranking employees of TEPAK and the service plans are not relevant.</p> <p>He added that the amount of the budget is very large and needs an exhaustive control, while the a deficit of €2 million means that there will soon be a supplementary budget, which is an anachronistic practice.</p> <p>He added that they expect from TEPAK, in addition to academic performance, performance in good administration and rationalization of expenses and from the Ministry of Education to bring before Parliament the new strategic planning for higher education. He also said that attention needs to be paid to the rents paid by TEPAK.</p> <p><noindex></p> <div class=Source: politis.com.cy

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