Engines start, they regain their strength and the parliamentarians return energetically to their seats, since after more than two months of inactivity, the sessions begin again, while after the handover of the outgoing Government to the next one, the sessions of the Plenary are expected to resume, with the first issues that will be put to vote are the budgets of semi-governmental organizations, which had not been voted on in the previous period.
The beginning of the sessions was made by the Trade Committee, which was convened on an emergency basis and proposals were put on the table for the regulation of the operation of hotels and tourist accommodation, such as that of the chairman of the Committee and deputy of the Democratic Alarm, Kyriakos Hatzigiannis, for the extension of the transitional period for registration of self-catering accommodation in the Register of Self-catering Accommodations, but also the proposal of the entire Commission to amend the provisions of the basic legislation regarding the registration of self-catering accommodation in the Register of Self-catering Accommodations.
The baton is being taken by the Education Committee, which decided to roll up its sleeves immediately, with the permission of the Speaker of the Parliament, to discuss the controversial issue of the budgets of semi-governmental organizations, such as the University of Cyprus, TEPAK, the Open University, the Organization Youth and others, which were not submitted in time to the legislature, so that the Committee would be able to examine them.
First on the table are the budgets of the University of Cyprus and the Youth Organization, which were submitted the eve before the closing of the Parliament, for Christmas and also for the Presidential Elections. As far as the Youth Organization is concerned, the discussion has not yet started and Wednesday's session is the first, for this specific issue. On the contrary, for the University of Cyprus, the discussion had begun, however there were individual issues, which put a temporary brake.
However, the Education Committee wants to start the discussions immediately, for all pending budgets, so that with the resumption of the work of the Parliament, on March 1st, to be immediately forwarded to the Plenary, for a vote, as so far they operate with decimals, which creates problems in their smooth operation.
The interventions and the bureaucracy caused a delay
Although the debate on the budget of the University of Cyprus had been launched, due to some interventions and also the bureaucracy, it did not take place before the Parliament was temporarily closed for three months. And that's because the budget could not be voted on without putting some things on the table.
Both the University of Cyprus, the University of Technology and the Open University had immediately sent their budgets, within June, to the relevant Ministry for approval, however, due to the holidays that followed, it was delayed to then be delivered to the Ministry of Finance, as a result to ship in October.
The specific time period, at the same time, was not the right one, as at that time the budgets of all the semi-state services and bodies, from all the Ministries, were piled up in the Ministry of Finance. This has resulted in a longer delay in advancing the specific issue to the House and Education Committee, resulting in budgets reaching the Legislature just days before debates on all individual issues are completed and the three-day debate on the state budget begins. budget and then the temporary termination of the discussions.
In the meantime, the intervention of the Auditor General had put a brake on the debate, who called on the Education Committee not to proceed with the debate, as he was preparing a report, in which reference was made to important issues that had to be put on the table. On the part of the University of Cyprus, a competent source clarified that the intervention of the Auditor General was the one that put a stop to the discussion. In fact, it is reported that they had responded to all the reports of the Auditor General, regarding the issues and misrepresentations, which he identified.
However, regarding the way the University operates, the same sources they state that it does operate relatively smoothly, however it is necessary to have a budget, as academic staff payments will have to be made, while since mid-January classes have started again for the spring semester and there are operational costs.
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