More than half of the top-ranking Finance Ministry officers who were there before, during and after the crisis of the Cyprus economy will leave their posts by end of 2019.
The changing of the guard will culminate with the already announced departure of Finance Minister Harris Georgiades at the end of the year. At the level of permanent staff, recent departures are continuous – for various reasons. For example, Stavros Michael who was heading the Budget Directorate for years took over as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Transport a few months ago.
A few days ago, Andreas Charalambous who was heading the Financial Stability Directorate left the Ministry taking advantage of his pre-retirement leave as well. For the replacement of Charalambous and Michael, announcements have already been made, while Melina Katsounotou is now the acting head of the Budget Directorate.
By next September, the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Christos Patsalides will be also retiring. Patsalides holds that position since the end of 2002 and has obviously experienced firsthand the various stages of the Cyprus economy. Patsalides’ replacement, along with the person who will be appointed as new Finance Minister will certainly play a key role in the ministry’s future strategy and actions.
Only four senior officers from the “old” guard will remain in place. In hierarchical order, these are: Phaedon Kalozois, Melina Katsounotou, George Panteli and Kyriakos Kakouris.
Kalozois is the head of the Public Debt Management Office, Katsounotou that of the Directorate for Strategy, Coordination and Communication, and for the moment acting head of the Budget Directorate. Pantelis heads the Department of Economic Studies and European Union and Kyriakos Kakouris the Department of Financial Management and Administration.
Read more:
https://in-cyprus.com/finance-minister-has-huge-responsibility-for-collapse-of-co-op-bank-investigation-finds/
