The Parliamentary Committee on Refugees requested explanations on Tuesday during a session regarding recent decisions by the Board of Directors of the Central Agency for the Equitable Distribution of Burdens.
In remarks made after the meeting, the Committee Chair, AKEL MP Nikos Kettiros, said that the state, through its policies, “is driving people to sell off their property in the occupied areas” and that “we will do everything possible andwithin our power to change these policies on the Board of Directors of the Central Agency for the Equitable Distribution of Burdens, and rest assured that if we need to dismantle them, we will remove them.”
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
He noted that the Agency’s Board of Directors was summoned to the Committee today because issues arose during the review of its budget.
He cited as an example the Board’s latest decision not to subsidize the interest rate for borrowers who apply to the Agency from the outset, but rather to have the applicant bear the first 1%. “We have been told that this was an order from the Ministry of Finance and that the civil servants, who make up the majority of the Board of Directors, had no choice but to vote in accordance with the Ministry of Finance’s directive,” he added.
“The Committee decided to raise this issue at upcoming meetings to examine the composition of the Board of Directors of the Equal Burden Sharing Agency, how it is defined by law and what can be changed, that is, whether civil servants—who take their orders from the Ministry of Finance—will continue to constitute a majority and make decisions not on the basis of fairness and the interests of the refugee community but based on the instructions they receive,” he noted.
He mentioned that some members of the Board of Directors were not present today, and reports that some had booked trips abroad were confirmed. “We will bring them here because they must answer specific questions,” he emphasized.
He also called it unacceptable that the Agency requires more guarantors and co-signers for student loans than commercial banks do, citing at least three cases in which three applicants decided to appeal to the “the compensation committee in the occupied territories or to other opportunists who want to buy property in the occupied territories.”
“It is unacceptable that this government, with these policies, is driving people to sell off their property in the occupied areas. We were very firm today. We will do everything possible andwithin our power to change these policies on the Board of Directors of the Central Agency for the Equitable Distribution of Burdens, and rest assured that if we need to dismantle them, we will remove them. However, these things—which did not exist in previous years within the agency and, unfortunately, have not become the norm recently—will change,” he concluded.
For his part, DISY MP Giorgos Lysandridis said that the decisions of the Board of Directors are often not what a refugee would want, however, in most cases, they stem from relevant policy directives, primarily from the Ministry of Finance.
“We have requested that the Minister himself attend the next meeting so that questions can be answered both regarding the interest rate subsidy, as well as regarding the difficulties and obstacles posed by the Department of Public Administration and Personnel concerning the staffing of the Agency and the approval of the requested positions for the organization’s staffing,” he noted.
“Issues such as the amount of the subsidy or the requirement that borrowers exist should always be examined in light of the proper use of public funds and audits” by the Audit Office, he said, “but also taking into account the large amount of non-performing loans that have accumulated at the financing agency in relation to the Central Agency.”
DIKO MP Adamos Aspris said that several cases have been identified that do not appear to meet the expectations of the refugee community.
“The key issue, in any case, is to decide whether the refugees’ requests for support and assistance will be addressed through an administrative approach or through a people-centered approach, as was the original plan when the Central Agency was established,” she noted.
Litsa Drousiotou, Member of Parliament for Alma, expressed concern about what had been said regarding the Ministry of Finance’s intervention in the issue of interest rate subsidies provided by the Central Agency for the Equitable Distribution of Burdens.
“While there was the option of fully subsidizing the interest rate so that refugees would not bear any cost, we were informed that the Ministry of Finance requested that a minimum charge of 1% be maintained. We requested that the Ministry of Finance attend the next meeting to provide us with appropriate explanations. We believe that this position must be reconsidered immediately. “The Agency was created to support refugees, not to impose additional financial burdens on them,” he noted.
He added that significant problems remain regarding co-debtors, guarantors, and long delays in processing applications
“Protecting public funds is necessary, but it cannot overshadow the Agency’s social purpose. Fifty-two years after the invasion, refugees are entitled to meaningful support without unnecessary financial and bureaucratic obstacles,” he added.
Source: CNA
