If it were just the case with the Pharmaceutical Services, you could say that a mistake was made, one of those that do not seem absurd only for the Cypriot state.
That the state leases its own property to a private individual for €6,000 a year and the private individual, after of course incurring some expenses that the state couldn’t, subleases it back to the state for €135,000 a year.
However, this is not a unique case. Indeed, the phenomenon has been recorded for years in the reports of the Audit Office.
A year and a half ago, Odysseas Michaelides sent a letter to the Ministry of Commerce, describing as scandalous the fact that the state leases land at a low rent for the purpose of industrial development and private individuals sublease it to the state for a much higher rent.
Odysseas’ letter was unnecessary, of course; just common sense makes it glaringly scandalous.
A ridiculous phenomenon that doesn’t make you laugh.
Because it makes you feel like crying. It’s truly embarrassing.
And don’t blame the journalists for not reporting it and waiting for the floods in the pharmaceutical warehouses to find out.
Because we’ve written countless times (in this column and elsewhere) about this ridiculous phenomenon, but no one paid any attention.
Not even the MPs, who focus on whatever they want. Parenthetically, the DISY party MPs have now remembered the charity fund chaired by Philippa Karsera Christodoulides and want to publicize the donors, while when Andri Anastasiades chaired it for ten years, there was no need to publicize anything.
Nor did they care, for example, when a Malaysian contributed €300,000 to the Archbishopric when he received a Cypriot passport. These are, apparently, different issues altogether…
Apart from the Pharmaceutical Warehouses, another private individual in Larnaca leases land from the state for €1,517 a year, builds some structures on it, and subleases them to the Department of Electrical and Mechanical Services of the state for €57,600.
And we are talking about 33-year agreements.
Another one, also in Larnaca, leases from the state for €2,751 and subleases to the Department of Public Works for €29,400. Another one, in Limassol, leases two plots for €1,870 and €1,007 respectively and subleases them to the Department of State Procurement and Supplies for €66,000.
And these are just indicative cases; there are others.
I reiterate, the Cypriot state couldn’t build warehouses on its own properties costing a few thousand – not even the Public Works, which is their job – and pays tens of thousands to private individuals who act as if they won a rigged state lottery.
These agreements have been in effect since 2003-2005. Think about how much these private individuals have earned over the years with these agreements.
For example, since 2004, the Pharmaceutical Services have paid the private individual approximately €1.7 million in rent for the flooded warehouses, and the private individual paid the state €80,000 for the land it gave him. Almost a million profit.
And not a single person, minister, or government found it beyond all reason.
On the contrary. They consider it very… honest. That’s why when the land lease ended in 2012, they renewed it for another 33 years, valid until 2045. How many more crooks can this country endure?
P.S. It seems to be a mindset that one automatically adopts, almost magically, when taking on an official position.
They become comfortable talking about public money as if it were peanuts.
Just like the new Health Minister, Michael Damianos, who spoke yesterday on Sigma about the destruction of medicines and said it’s not huge amounts.
Initially, the estimates indicate that stocks for 149 drugs were affected and 105,941 medicine packages were destroyed, costing €879,908.
Only! Because, for our officials to be concerned, the damages must be in the millions and above.
