![](\"http:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/pensions-and-state-salaries-paid-together-illegal.jpg\")
In a report released Tuesday, the auditor-general\u2019s office again raised the matter of the simultaneous payment of salaries and pensions to currently serving state officials, calling on the Treasury to cease this practice at once.<\/p>\nIn a report released Tuesday, the auditor-general\u2019s office again raised the matter of the simultaneous payment of salaries and pensions to currently serving state officials, calling on the Treasury to cease this practice at once.<\/p>\n
The remarks came in the Audit Office\u2019s special report on the Treasury for the year 2022. The Treasury is urged to \u201cimmediately cease the payment of pensions to currently serving state officials<\/strong>\u2026 which is being done in express violation of the relevant laws\u201d.It added: \u201cNo illegal pension should be paid out for the month of January 2024 and thereafter.\u201dCiting the applicable law, the Audit Office said the payment of pensions should have been suspended for the time during which these officials drew a salary.Earlier this month, the Treasury said it would resume paying the pensions of currently serving state officials, following legal advice from the attorney-general\u2019s office.About 160 state officials, retired and currently serving, are on multiple pensions<\/strong>. For example, there are state officials like the president and four ministers who are collecting a state pension while also being paid a state salary.Despite an attempt by the legislature to end this state of affairs, a law it passed in 2014 was later ruled unconstitutional by the courts on the grounds that a pension was the property of its recipient and could not be taken away.Elsewhere in the dossier, the Treasury is said to practice \u201caccounting practices\u2026 not commensurate with the accounting principle of receipts and payments, on the basis of which financial statements were compiled\u201d.And the report noted that the public-sector wage cuts stipulated in the 2013 bailout deal with international lenders were not applied to the salaries of judges<\/strong> hired after the passage of the relevant legislation. This state of affairs \u2013 exempting judges from the wage cuts \u2013 went on until August of 2021.Another point flagged has to do with the Treasury not properly checking adherence to all the provisions of schemes for subsidised loans for businesses or for new home loans, rolled out by the government as part of relief measures during the coronavirus pandemic.Here again, the Audit Office found \u201ccases where for the Treasury\u2019s receipts no supporting documentation is attached, other than the credit note from the Central Bank and\/or receipts that bear no indication of checks having been done.\u201cAs a result, it was not possible to ascertain whether the Treasury secured all the necessary data and checked the accuracy of the amount at the material time of the receipt.\u201dFollow the The auditor-general\u2019s office has called on the Treasury to immediately stop the practice of paying pensions to currently serving state officials, as it violates relevant laws. This issue was highlighted in the Audit Office\u2019s special report on the Treasury for the year 2022. The report also mentioned that about 160 state officials, both retired and currently serving, are receiving multiple pensions, including high-ranking officials like the president and four ministers. Additionally, the report criticized the Treasury for not applying public-sector wage cuts, as stipulated in the 2013 bailout deal, to judges hired after the legislation was passed, a practice that continued until August 2021. Furthermore, the Treasury was found to have inadequately checked adherence to schemes for subsidized loans for businesses and new home loans during the coronavirus pandemic, with some cases lacking necessary supporting documentation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[972,365,3,121,250,415,187,722,284,738,973,170],"class_list":["post-3363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","tag-audit-office","tag-coronavirus","tag-cyprus","tag-featured","tag-google","tag-government","tag-international","tag-pensions","tag-property","tag-state-pension","tag-treasury","tag-violation"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n
\nCyprus Mail on Google News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"