The community of Paleochori, Oreini, is in an uproar following the decision by the Local Government Directorate to “automatically remove” Community Leader Tassos Michailidis due to a suspended prison sentence imposed on him in 2021 for charges including assault, trespassing, actual bodily injury, malicious damage, etc. Speaking on the “Alpha Kalimera” program, Mr. Michaelides spoke of inaccuracies and distortions by the Head of the Local Government Directorate, whom he accused of “going around the media on a contract basis.”
As he explained, the case concerns a complaint filed regarding incidents at the OSE offices in Nicosia, where he was then serving as Director of Human Resources, and his tenure resulted in savings of over €1.5 million from the company’s payroll, which amounted to €10 million annually. Mr. Michaelides claimed that he had uncovered “parties” and “feasts” for which two of the company’s directors were sentenced to suspended sentences based on their confessions, two company directors who continued to perform their duties as usual while receiving a monthly salary of €7,000.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
The Community Leader of Paleichori Oreini spoke of the enormous cost he and his family had borne, for large amounts of unpaid bus rental fees that were deliberately withheld from him, and for debts totaling hundreds of thousands of euros related to the purchase of buses that were “vindictively” remained out of the OSEL fleet for years. As he stated, lengthy legal proceedings are currently underway regarding these matters. He expressed “great bitterness” at the treatment he has received from the state, for which he has safeguarded public funds and had reported the irregularities at OSEL through a series of letters to then-Minister of Finance Haris Georgiadis.
Regarding his bid to reclaim the office of Community Leader after his conviction, he emphasized that his conviction did not involve issues of “moral turpitude.”
Mr. Michailidis also attributed ulterior motives to the decision by the other Community Leaders of the cluster to move the cluster’s headquarters from Paleochori, Oreini—which has 1,300 residents, to Alona, which has a very small population. As he stated, this is an illegal decision that was discussed with the President of the Republic, who expressed his intention to resolve the issue.
