{"id":6584,"date":"2024-04-02T20:00:29","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T17:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584"},"modified":"2024-04-02T20:00:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T17:00:29","slug":"house-president-minister-lock-horns-over-double-pensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584","title":{"rendered":"House president, minister lock horns over double pensions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/house-president-minister-lock-horns-over-double-pensions.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>House President Annita Demetriou and the finance minister got into a verbal spat on Tuesday after the former complained again that the latter is not following proper procedures in submitting legislation to parliament.<\/p>\n<div class=\"cypru-video-ads\" id=\"cypru-602166127\">\n<div id=\"cypru-1119667220\" data-cypru-trackid=\"478051\" data-cypru-trackbid=\"1\" class=\"cypru-target\">\n<div id=\"gpt-ad-2008044131083-0\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>The spat relates to the contentious issue of pensions given to state officials<\/strong> after the government submitted two draft bills aiming to tweak the legislation.<br \/>\nDemetriou said the finance ministry was breaking the norms by submitting the bills to parliament for \u2018consultation\u2019 before the bills were approved by the cabinet.<br \/>\n\u201cIt\u2019s an eminently institutional issue,\u201d she said.<br \/>\n\u201cAs President of the House of Representatives, it is my duty to safeguard the institutions as well as the constitution, and therefore not accept irregular procedures which potentially violate the separation of powers.\u201d<br \/>\nDemetriou recalled that during a prior meeting of party leaders, a unanimous decision was reached to not accept draft bills from the government. They instead proposed that an informal consultation take place with the ministry, which is \u201cthe usual and appropriate practice\u201d.<br \/>\n<strong>It was the second time that the House president refused to take formal receipt of bills submitted in this way<\/strong>.<br \/>\nIn March, Demetriou had sent the same bills back to the ministry. She insists that the proper procedure is for government bills to first get the nod from the cabinet and then be sent to parliament.<br \/>\nSpeaking to Alpha television, Demetriou remarked sardonically that the finance minister was resorting to \u201ca judgment of Solomon\u201d \u2013 an artful way to get around an unsolvable dispute.<br \/>\nSnapping back, Finance Minister Makis Keravnos \u2013 whose ministry drafted the bills in question \u2013 attributed Demetriou\u2019s stance to her own interpretation of the rules.<br \/>\n\u201cIt seems Mrs Demetriou knows all about Solomon\u2019s judgments,\u201d Keravnos told the same media outlet.<br \/>\n\u201cI don\u2019t do that\u2026 <strong>I simply implement normal practices<\/strong>.\u201d<br \/>\nAccording to reports, under the two bills regulating the matter of pensions for both serving and retired state officials, these officials would continue receiving their pensions normally.<br \/>\nHowever, the change is that pensions would be paid out once a state official reaches the age of 65, instead of at the age of 60 currently.<br \/>\nMoreover, this would not affect officials who have already reached the age of 60 and have begun receiving a pension.<br \/>\n<strong>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.<br \/>\nDespite 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.<br \/>\nThe auditor-general has repeatedly called on the state treasury to cease the practice of the simultaneous payment of salaries and pensions to currently serving state officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fact: House President Annita Demetriou and the finance minister got into a verbal spat over the issue of pensions given to state officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[862,636,3345,3348,3,569,518,3102,250,3330,415,791,2828,3441,3940,2685,64,2952,1346,3331,1799,722,3754,1673,284,3771,738,973,4718],"class_list":["post-6584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","tag-age","tag-annita-demetriou","tag-cabinet","tag-change","tag-cyprus","tag-finance","tag-finance-minister","tag-finance-ministry","tag-google","tag-google-news","tag-government","tag-house-president","tag-institutions","tag-judgment","tag-leaders","tag-legislation","tag-makis-keravnos","tag-media","tag-meeting","tag-news","tag-parliament","tag-pensions","tag-president-of-the-house","tag-procedure","tag-property","tag-salaries","tag-state-pension","tag-treasury","tag-verbal-spat"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>House president, minister lock horns over double pensions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"bills. verbal spat, legislation, pensions\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"House president, minister lock horns over double pensions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"bills. verbal spat, legislation, pensions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ch.jfdi.cc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-02T17:00:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/house-president-minister-lock-horns-over-double-pensions.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"831\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"554\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cyprus Mail\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cyprus Mail\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6584#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6584\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cyprus Mail\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/606e0fbe40ab1cad97176ec3e4e248f8\"},\"headline\":\"House president, minister lock horns over double pensions\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-02T17:00:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6584\"},\"wordCount\":482,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6584#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/house-president-minister-lock-horns-over-double-pensions.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"age\",\"annita demetriou\",\"cabinet\",\"change\",\"Cyprus\",\"finance\",\"finance minister\",\"finance ministry\",\"Google\",\"Google News\",\"government\",\"house president\",\"institutions\",\"judgment\",\"leaders\",\"legislation\",\"Makis Keravnos\",\"media\",\"meeting\",\"news\",\"parliament\",\"pensions\",\"President of the House\",\"procedure\",\"Property\",\"salaries\",\"State pension\",\"Treasury\",\"verbal spat\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Cyprus\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6584\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6584\",\"name\":\"House president, minister lock horns over double pensions\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6584#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6584#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/house-president-minister-lock-horns-over-double-pensions.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-02T17:00:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/606e0fbe40ab1cad97176ec3e4e248f8\"},\"description\":\"bills. verbal spat, legislation, pensions\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6584#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6584\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6584#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/house-president-minister-lock-horns-over-double-pensions.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/house-president-minister-lock-horns-over-double-pensions.jpg\",\"width\":831,\"height\":554,\"caption\":\"House president, minister lock horns over double pensions\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6584#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"House president, minister lock horns over double pensions\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/\",\"name\":\"ch.jfdi.cc\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/606e0fbe40ab1cad97176ec3e4e248f8\",\"name\":\"Cyprus Mail\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cyprus-mail.com\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"House president, minister lock horns over double pensions","description":"bills. verbal spat, legislation, pensions","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"House president, minister lock horns over double pensions","og_description":"bills. verbal spat, legislation, pensions","og_url":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584","og_site_name":"ch.jfdi.cc","article_published_time":"2024-04-02T17:00:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":831,"height":554,"url":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/house-president-minister-lock-horns-over-double-pensions.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cyprus Mail","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cyprus Mail","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584"},"author":{"name":"Cyprus Mail","@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/#\/schema\/person\/606e0fbe40ab1cad97176ec3e4e248f8"},"headline":"House president, minister lock horns over double pensions","datePublished":"2024-04-02T17:00:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584"},"wordCount":482,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/house-president-minister-lock-horns-over-double-pensions.jpg","keywords":["age","annita demetriou","cabinet","change","Cyprus","finance","finance minister","finance ministry","Google","Google News","government","house president","institutions","judgment","leaders","legislation","Makis Keravnos","media","meeting","news","parliament","pensions","President of the House","procedure","Property","salaries","State pension","Treasury","verbal spat"],"articleSection":["Cyprus"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584","url":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584","name":"House president, minister lock horns over double pensions","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/house-president-minister-lock-horns-over-double-pensions.jpg","datePublished":"2024-04-02T17:00:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/#\/schema\/person\/606e0fbe40ab1cad97176ec3e4e248f8"},"description":"bills. verbal spat, legislation, pensions","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/house-president-minister-lock-horns-over-double-pensions.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/house-president-minister-lock-horns-over-double-pensions.jpg","width":831,"height":554,"caption":"House president, minister lock horns over double pensions"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6584#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"House president, minister lock horns over double pensions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/","name":"ch.jfdi.cc","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/#\/schema\/person\/606e0fbe40ab1cad97176ec3e4e248f8","name":"Cyprus Mail","sameAs":["https:\/\/cyprus-mail.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?author=3"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}