This just adds to our problems! Writing about an issue that should have us up in arms instead of being polite, and then being lectured by the Attorney General about the penalties for disclosing confidential letters.
Do you know why we should be up in arms? Because time and again, millions are loaded onto our backs, and they want to label them confidential so we remain silent.
A consortium (CPP company), with Chinese, Greek, and Norwegian interests (the Chinese company, which is also state-owned, holds the upper hand), was contracted to construct the liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Vasilikos to supply the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) for power generation. Hoping to reduce the cost reflected in our bimonthly shocking bills. The project cost €500 million.
The project, supposed to be delivered in September 2022 (contracts signed in 2019), is not even halfway done. Continuous delays and cost overruns. Citizens are paying without knowing and without any benefit. Despite the repeated delays, we paid additional amounts (€25 million, for example, due to the increase in steel prices during the coronavirus pandemic) under the threat that they would abandon the project and cause chaos.
The Audit Office’s report says it clearly, referring to “very serious political responsibilities for managing the national importance project by the Anastasiades government and the then administration of the Ministry of Energy”, as they proceeded “despite the General Auditor’s repeated written warnings of serious illegalities and risks to the interests of the Republic (…) citing the project’s urgency”.
So, they proceeded, and now we’re in arbitration court (in London) with the consortium demanding another €200 million from the Republic. For delays and other reasons they claim are our fault. Two hundred million!
Moreover, the ship that will bring the gas, which we bought (tens of millions more), was taken by the consortium for modifications but is now “held hostage” until we agree on how much more we will pay them.
Instead of paying a penalty for the delays since September ’22, when we were supposed to receive the project, we risk paying much more without the project even being completed.
To make it clearer, note this: In Alexandroupolis, the construction of a terminal (the same job, essentially) began in May 2022. The job is done, and this Friday, the first LNG cargo will arrive at the new facilities in Alexandroupolis. We, the brilliant ones, messed up again and have no idea how long we will continue to have electricity from Mazut and pay €300 million a year for emissions.
Chrysanthos Manoli, who closely follows this issue, wrote yesterday in Phileleftheros that the Minister of Energy sent a confidential letter to the Parliament informing that the Chinese threaten to take measures if the information leak about the arbitration process continues.
They want us to pay another €200 million, not to have the project completed, not to have natural gas, and to keep our mouths shut.
Instead of everyone rushing to see what in the world to do, we have the Attorney General taking a stern tone and warning us that “any transmission, retransmission, description, or reference to classified content is a criminal offence punishable by seven years’ imprisonment”. He even clarified that “it is not specifically about these publications”, as if to say we are fools on top of everything. Since that was specifically the topic of discussion, the statement was general and vague!
Let’s get a bit serious in this place.
