The upgrade of the “Photo Radar List” speed camera system through the allocation of €146,000, so that the police can issue out-of-court fines at roadblocks for outstanding violations by Turkish Cypriot vehicles, was discussed on Monday by the House Finance Committee.
As reported to the Committee, which discussed the release of funds to upgrade the system, there are approximately 16,000 outstanding out-of-court fines related to such vehicles.
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During the discussion, Committee members asked numerous questions and sought clarifications regarding both the request to release the funds and the system’s overall operation.
Ultimately, the Committee decided to continue the discussion at its next meeting, in the presence of representatives from the Ministry of Transport.
In remarks following the session, AKEL MP Andreas Pasiourtides said that “the government’s and the police’s insistence on releasing the funds for the Photo Radar List is not commensurate with the diligence they should be showing in justifying to the three relevant House committees what the company and the police have done to date to successfully serve the undelivered out-of-court notices, as well as whether the company is fulfilling its contractual obligations.”
“At this time, the Parliament is being asked to release a budget of approximately 150,000 euros to be paid to the company so it can develop new software to serve undelivered notices at roadblocks,” he added.
He noted, however, that “before we reach that point, someone needs to assess what has happened so far and explain to us the reasons why they are not being delivered, beyond the well-known reason that some opportunists have now figured out the trick and no longer go to the post office.”
He added that the company has a contractual obligation to make two more attempts, using a private process server, to serve the notices.
Mr. Pasiourtides said he finds it inconceivable that “dozens of thousands of out-of-court notices were attempted to be served by process servers in Cyprus and the violators could not be located,” and added that “Another testament to the delay is the fact that for the past 3–4 years, an amendment bill on alternative methods of service has been pending in the ministries and the Legal Service.”
“The state is in such a hurry to serve documents that, even after four years, it has still not managed to close the gaps in the legislation and introduce other methods of service,” he added.
He also noted that if the government believes that “the House of Representatives will also go along with its scheme to participate in the tax-collection policy involving cameras, then at least we, as a party, will not participate in this process.” He added that “if they do not adequately justify every request regarding the cameras, it will not be approved, and it is up to them —of the government and the company—to come and convince us that they have exhausted all avenues under existing legislation and their contractual obligations to deliver, and that they were unable to do so.”
“They shouldn’t think that every time they come to Parliament to seek approval for funding for the cameras, they’ll get it,” he added.
Responding to a question about whether the issue concerns only Turkish Cypriots, Mr. Pasiourtides said that this initiative was launched for everyone—and to serve notices at airports and seaports— “the state and the government backed down when they realized the legal problems, citing the Schengen issue, then began serving them at roadblocks and police stations, and today tells us that the company has already developed the software, limiting the service of extrajudicial notices to Turkish Cypriots, without yet explaining to us why they cannot serve Turkish Cypriots, since we know every time the camera records which license plate is the one that was reported.”
“The government is trying to cover up its own failure, which left 180,000 undelivered notices over four years, without taking timely action to identify the gaps and problems and implement corrective measures,” he concluded.
ELAM MP Marios Pelekanos said that the funding had been allocated by the House of Representatives, apparently for very specific reasons, and added that “based on the responses we have received today from Police representatives, the whole situation does not seem to be becoming any clearer.”
He noted that it would have been appropriate to invite representatives from the Ministry of Transportation to the session as well, and added that discussion of the issue would continue at a subsequent session in the presence of representatives from the Ministry of Transportation.
Mr. Pelekanos said that the issue at hand is how procedures can move forward when the House of Representatives has allocated a budget, and added that the company in question has completed the development of the software in question.
He also said that these Turkish Cypriot vehicles “have been illegally imported into our country, have been cleared through illegal customs posts, are circulating in the free areas without anyone being aware of their unsuitability, and this is a serious matter, which we at ELAM will examine by submitting a motion on our own initiative to the relevant Committee.”
Regarding the system in general, Mr. Pelekanos said that “it does not appear to be yielding the desired results,” adding that this conclusion is drawn from “the statistics published regarding accidents, including fatal accidents, in our country.”
“Instead of improving, things are simply getting worse, and ELAM’s long-standing position is that we should not resort to revenue-generating methods, such as cameras, to address this very serious issue,” he added.
He noted that we should invest in education and in fostering the right culture.
Yiannis Laouris, a member of parliament for Direct Democracy, said, “We spent two hours today in Parliament and didn’t understand what issue we were discussing,” and added that the problem they were trying to explain to them was how to identify Turkish Cypriots by their cars in order to serve them with summonses.
“An issue that can be resolved technically and through specific procedures,” he noted, adding that they did not understand “how it would be resolved technically, nor through which procedures.”
Mr. Laouris said he asked them to “document the procedures,” noting that since he has been a computer programmer for 30 years and also owns a company, “the cost of what they want to do is a few hundred euros, yet they’re asking for over 100,000 euros.”
“The figures we’re talking about are outrageous—just to establish communication between two databases so they can ‘talk’ to each other and match a person with a number and a notice of debt collection,” he added.
He also said that “another absurdity” is that the Committee was told there is a website for out-of-court settlements, and he added that during the meeting he himself visited that website and “I discovered that I, too, received a demand letter regarding my car 5–6 months ago, but there is no way for me to find out where the demand letter is or to pay it.”
Source: KYPE
