The Audit Office cannot bow to orders from the attorney-general over when it can or can’t publish reports, as it needs to cling on to whatever remnants of independence it has, auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides said on Wednesday.
His statements under cross-examination at the Supreme Constitutional Court were made during a hearing that lasted close to five hours and covered a range of themes including the contentious multiple pensions, cushy army posts and accusations of overstepping boundaries.
The case filed by attorney-general George Savvides seeks to have Michaelides dismissed on the grounds of inappropriate conduct, which the latter rejects.
Michaelides told a packed courtroom that the differences between himself and Savvides were never a personal issue, nor is he driven by any bad blood with deputy attorney-general Savvas Angelides.
According to the auditor-general, any clashes which have hit the limelight between himself and the legal service are a direct result of the issues which arise with the attorney-general’s dual role, as state prosecutor and simultaneously state advisor.
One of the Savvides’ lawyers Dinos Kallis who took up the cross examination told Michaelides that he violated the agreement he had with the attorney-general in 2020 not to publish any reports over the golden passports.
Michaelides hit back to say the government had dragged its feet over giving the Audit Office the green light to investigate the golden passports.
It had requested access to data in July 2019 and sent a reminder to no avail. The Kalogirou committee was created to investigate the matter and so the Audit Office duly waited, Michaelides said.
By August 2020, the Audit Office expressed its interest in broadening the scope of the investigation only to be met with the creation of the Nicolatos committee.
“This committee was used as a reason not to give us data.”
The attorney-general’s decision to say that two investigations – that of Nicolatos and the Audit Office cannot unfold at the same time “undermines the decision-making pillar of the Audit Office”, Michaelides claimed.
As such, they decided to publish their findings because the AG’s office could not dictate to them when they could or could not publish their reports. In the end, “our reports were very beneficial to the Nicolatos committee.”
Where the defence ministry is concerned, Michaelides said there were 15 people with cushy posts at the national guard, where it appeared they were not there by merit but by “other criteria” namely nepotism.
He specified he was initially aware of four questionable cases.
Upon broadening the investigation to 2019, the Audit Office identified 15 questionable cases but the case was shut down by the AG.
The question which hung in the air is that the attorney-general may have been covering up for his deputy who was defence minister at the time.
Kallis retorted that Michaelides extended the year of the investigation to go back to 2019 so as to deliberately include Savvides as part of a personal gripe against him.
Michaelides refuted the allegation, specifying that if that was the case, he would have began the investigation starting from 2018 which was when Savvides was appointed as minister.
On the issue of multiple pensions, Kallis claimed Michaelides had ignored a previous legal opinion by former attorney-general Costas Clerides that was the same as that of the incumbent, focusing only on Savvides as part of an orchestrated attempt to smear him.
Michaelides rejected this, saying that on the contrary, it proved that the issue lay with the opinion irrespective of who it came from.
“The legal opinion of ‘continue to pay (multiple pensions) despite the provision of the law’ is, in my mind, an illegality if the law stipulates (Finance Minister) Makis Keravnos should not be paid a pension and he is,” Michaelides stated.
The dispute stems from allegations that the attorney-general’s opinion that multiple state pensions should be paid benefits the deputy attorney-general, who was formerly a defence minister.
Allegations also flew over the legal fees of both Michaelides and Savvides.
Kallis claimed there was an €18,000 fee that the legal team currently representing Michaelides had accrued for a previous case he privately took to court over his deputy/assistant.
The auditor-general, however, rejected the said sum, adding that the lawyers insisted they remain unpaid.
Michaelides is working with lawyers Christos Clerides, George Triantafyllides and Pambos Ioannides.
Kallis stressed Michaelides should have informed or requested permission from the finance ministry, prompting an extensive debate. The auditor-general retorted that it is Savvides’ lawyers who will come at an expense to the taxpayer at the moment.
Kallis hit back to say the unpaid legal fees would then constitute a donation to the Republic as Michaelides took the case to court as the auditor-general of the country.
As such, there is a €3,400 tax due that Michaelides did not pay even if he was not charged the legal fees, Kallis added to which Michaelides specified this was for his lawyers to handle.