The legal service’s request for auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides to be suspended from his duties will “probably be filed on Friday”, the Cyprus Mail has learned.
Legal service spokeswoman Maria Lantidou said the final tweaks are still being made to the text of the case file before it is submitted, and that it will “probably be submitted within the day.”
However, she said, due to the nature of the case, she was unable to say with certainty at exactly what time it will be filed.
The Cyprus News Agency (CNA) had earlier published a more conservative estimate; that the case would be filed at midday on Monday.
The current ‘war’ between the legal service and the audit office was kicked off last Sunday when deputy attorney-general Savvas Angelides told gave a scathing interview to newspaper Kathimerini regarding Michaelides’ conduct.
“Any sane thinking person would demand to follow the only procedure which exists to control the behaviour of the auditor-general towards independent officials and others in the public sphere,” he said.
He said the “only option available to assess this behaviour” is to involve the judicial council in a process which, would “adjudicate an application to decide what constitutes misconduct for the purpose of dismissal.”
In response, audit office spokesman Marios Petrides said “Angelides outlined some very serious accusations and yet no action has been taken.”
“If you want to do something, do it.”
President Nikos Christodoulides has not taken a side on the matter as yet, but described the situation as “a very unpleasant development”.
A case against Odysseas Michaelides would be only the second time a request for the suspension of a state official has been filed. The only other so far was the case of Rikkos Erotokritou, who was suspended as assistant attorney-general in 2015.
Erotokritou was later sentenced to three and a half years in prison after he was found guilty of defrauding a public official, bribing public officials, and other charges.
Lawyer Christos Clerides, on the auditor-general’s legal team, told CNA that they themselves are waiting to find out when the case will be filed.
“We want everything to be examined in the context of substance,” he said.
He added, “I understand that the complaint is that [THE AUDITOR-GENERAL] overstepped his authority,” but noted that the act of overstepping one’s authority “does not constitute misconduct.
“Courts have in hundreds of cases overstepped their authority and competence, and they are overseen by higher courts in the forms of appeals or by applications to the supreme court,” he said.
He went on to reference article 139 of the constitution, which allows for recourse against various institutions of the Republic related to conflicts or contests of power or competence.
In this regard, he said, “matters of competence are controlled by a specific procedure and they do not constitute inappropriate behaviour. Inappropriate behaviour is something else. It is where someone has behaved in such a way that it is not appropriate for them to be in their position.”
He also pointed out that the powers exercised by the auditor general are not exercised by him alone but are carried out by a six-member audit council which takes these decisions.
“Sometimes there can be disagreements, but in most cases, decisions are made unanimously,” he said.
Clerides noted that other attempts have been made to have supreme court judges and even former attorney-general Costas Clerides from their roles, but the supreme court of the day had ruled that members of the public do not have the right to request that state officials be suspended.
With this in mind, Clerides said the matter of whether the attorney-general or assistant attorney-general can request that state officials be suspended will be “one of the issues that will be decided” should the case go ahead.
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