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- Ελληνικά
The bill on the establishment and operation of the Independent Anti-Corruption Authority will be submitted to the plenary on February 17.
This bill, together with the bill on lobbying, was on the agenda of the previous plenary session, but due to some recent changes, the text was not ready to be put before the House. At an extraordinary session of the Legal Affairs Committee today, only the last-minute amendments were discussed.
The Chairman of the Committee, DISY MP Nikos Tornaritis said after the Committee's session that the bill will finally be sent to the Plenum of the House next Thursday.
Explaining the procedure to be followed as recorded in the consolidated text that will be before the plenary, he said that an Advisory Council is being set up under the law with a retired judge as chairman, appointed by the Supreme Court and its members being the President of the Academy of Arts and Letters, the President of the Cyprus Bar Association, the President of the Cyprus Association of Certified Public Accountants and the President of the Assembly of Rectors.
He added that this Advisory Council within 40 days will submit a list of fifteen persons - that is three times the number of persons who will make up the Anti-Corruption Authority, which will be five - to the House of Representatives and in particular to the Legal Affairs Committee. After a closed-door debate in the Committee, he explained, the Advisory Council will submit the list to the President of the Republic, who will use it to appoint the five members who will make up the Authority. The term of office of the members of the Authority will be six years.
At the same time, Tornaritis said, the Commission will have full investigative activities. He also said that amendments tabled by the Green Movement to add investigative powers to this legislation were also discussed, however, he said, this issue has been answered too many times by the Legal Service and others. At the same time, he added that each party has the right to table any amendment it wishes in the plenary. He added that this law is not only a precondition for the Recovery Fund and the drawing of the first tranche from it. It is a fact, he continued, that Cyprus is now, through legislation, through acts, fully aligned with modern states and especially with EU states.
He reiterated that only through acts "e can answer all those who place either Cyprus or the system in Cyprus in categories in which the Republic of Cyprus should not be".
Source: CNA
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