{"id":9633,"date":"2024-04-25T20:00:11","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T17:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=9633"},"modified":"2024-04-25T20:00:11","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T17:00:11","slug":"mps-approve-tepak-budget-amid-transparency-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=9633","title":{"rendered":"MPs approve Tepak budget amid transparency concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/mps-approve-tepak-budget-amid-transparency-concerns.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>The House of Representatives on Thursday greenlit the budget for the Cyprus University of Technology (Tepak) even as MPs hammered the institution over lack of transparency and its track record of financial scandals.<\/p>\n<div class=\"cypru-video-ads\" id=\"cypru-1184505467\">\n<div id=\"cypru-1356179676\" data-cypru-trackid=\"478051\" data-cypru-trackbid=\"1\" class=\"cypru-target\">\n<div id=\"gpt-ad-8307576348107-0\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The 2024 budget bill for Tepak passed by unanimous vote. It is the last public body to have had its 2024 balance sheet approved.<br \/>\nBut in passing the budget, MPs also \u2018crossed\u2019 two spending items. The first item had to do with Tepak purchasing services from the private sector, the second with spending on renting premises. For both of these, whenever Tepak wishes to make expenditures, it has to come to parliament and request the release of those funds.<br \/>\nThe third amendment had to do with an administrative issue, cited as the main reason having delayed the passage of Tepak\u2019s balance sheet. As submitted, the budget bill had stipulated that the head of the university\u2019s management and finances department would no longer act as the financial auditor; rather, this competency would be transferred to the head of the studies and student welfare department.<br \/>\nIn this way, Tepak would have effectively audited itself from now on \u2013 the only public body to do so. Earlier, the Auditor-General Odysseas Michaelides had opined that this would have been both irregular and illegal.<br \/>\nBut the amendment passed on Thursday struck out this clause, reinstating the status quo ante.<br \/>\nOn the House floor, <strong>MPs complained bitterly about the delay in the submission of the Tepak budget<\/strong> \u2013 which comes to \u20ac100 million \u2013 saying this amounted to blackmail.<br \/>\nThe blackmail relates to the fact that MPs were under pressure to pass the budget no matter what, otherwise university staff would have been left unpaid.<br \/>\nA day earlier, it emerged that the March salaries had to be paid out of the university\u2019s pension fund.<br \/>\nBudgets are normally passed at the end of December. During the months of January and February, organisations whose budgets have yet to get the nod from parliament, can still pay staff under a temporary system known as \u2018twelfths\u2019 \u2013 where only a sum equivalent to not more than one twelfth of the budget appropriations for the previous year may be spent each month for any chapter of the budget.<br \/>\nThe \u2018twelfths\u2019 system expires at the end of February \u2013 meaning that if the budgets of these organisations do not pass in that month, they are barred from making any payments, leaving staff unpaid.<br \/>\nFor this March, Tepak had to \u2018cheat\u2019 in order to disburse moneys to faculty and employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The House of Representatives approved the budget for the Cyprus University of Technology (Tepak) for 2024. The budget bill passed by unanimous vote, but MPs raised concerns about lack of transparency and financial scandals at the institution. The budget approval was delayed, leading to pressure on MPs to pass it to ensure university staff would be paid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1964,4791,3492,1766,7892,3206,4029,2577,3,7783,6548,3935,2515,3174,2110,250,3330,7062,185,6653,7776,3331,243,1799,5385,3775,1354,2871,3771,1371,1806,3480,6958,1682,901,1571,7893,7850,1774,6404],"class_list":["post-9633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","tag-2024-budget","tag-approval","tag-bill","tag-budget","tag-budget-approval","tag-budget-bill","tag-budgets","tag-concerns","tag-cyprus","tag-cyprus-university-of-technology","tag-delayed","tag-expenditures","tag-february","tag-financial-scandals","tag-funds","tag-google","tag-google-news","tag-house-of-representatives","tag-main","tag-management","tag-march","tag-news","tag-odysseas-michaelides","tag-parliament","tag-pension-fund","tag-pressure","tag-release","tag-request","tag-salaries","tag-scandals","tag-services","tag-spending","tag-student","tag-technology","tag-tepak","tag-transparency","tag-transparency-concerns","tag-university","tag-vote","tag-welfare"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- 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