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- Ελληνικά
Project: Legal Service of the Republic - No. Tender: A/1/2023(E)
As you know, on 18.9.2023, exercising our constitutional powers, we forwarded to the Department of Public Works (DPP) a letter with our comments regarding the new building of the Legal Service under tender. On 20.9.2023, in yet another blatant attack, the Attorney General confidently accused the Auditor General that he had released the letter to the public and indeed that he did so to hurt the Attorney General, whom, always according to his statement, the Auditor General has set his sights on.
Yesterday the Attorney General came back and spoke of paraphilia and inaccuracies that collapsed like a house of cards. He also claimed that if a building was rented it would cost €7 million a year. He also stated that he will be retired when the new building is completed and this, he said, refutes what was said about his own claims of luxury.
Although it was not the intention of our office to revert, we must for the purpose of full and proper information to the public note the following:
(a) Our Service's findings that the promotion of the project by signing a public contract prior to the preparation, submission and approval of the Environmental Study was manifestly illegal and that the project as promoted is a case of excessive and wasteful planning, in violation of even the relevant Cabinet Resolutions relating to maximum office floor areas, remain unchallenged.
(b) The former Attorney General and the current Attorney General, initially upon taking office, without abandoning the request to construct or purchase a new building, had accepted that the immediate and medium-term housing needs of the Legal Service could be met by the concession, either the adjacent Press and Information Office building or the other three floors of the adjacent former Planning Office building, which already houses Legal Service officials. These solutions are incomparably more economical.
(c) While the Ministry of Finance was clear that the acquisition of a new Legal Service building is not a priority for the Government, suddenly on 25.11.2020 the Council of Ministers decided to grant the Legal Service the land next to its existing building for the construction of new buildings. For some reason it was decided that this decision of the Council of Ministers should not be published in the Official Gazette of the Republic. In a letter from the Legal Service, dated 30 June 2004, the Legal Service stated that the decision not to publish the decision in the Official Gazette was not published in the Official Gazette. 4.12.2020 states that it "secured the approval of the Council of Ministers". It therefore follows that the Decision was taken at the request of the Legal Service to the former President of the Republic.
[D](d) The excessive number of offices was a requirement of the Legal Service, which co-ordinated with the TOR and other building requirements which proved to be wasteful and excessive.
[E) THE CLAIM THAT RENTING A BUILDING WOULD HAVE COST €7 MILLION PER YEAR WAS INCLUDED IN THE NOTE DATED 30 JUNE 2010. 24.1.2022 SUBMITTED BY THE LEGAL SERVICE ITSELF TO THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE. EVEN WITH THE WASTEFUL DESIGN FOR A FLOOR AREA OF 15,300 SQUARE METRES (SQ M), THE FIGURE OF €7 MILLION PER ANNUM WOULD MEAN A MONTHLY RENT OF €38 PER SQ M. THOSE WHO HAVE A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF MARKET PRICES UNDERSTAND THAT THIS FIGURE IS BEYOND ALL REASON AND REFERS TO WASTEFUL AND LUXURIOUS DESIGNS.
It should be noted that the Ministry of Defence has been housed since 2019 together with the General Staff in a building on Strovolos Avenue with an area of about 7.150 sq.m. with a rent that was set at €11.5 per sq.m. on the ground floor and €10 per sq.m. on the remaining five (5) floors, while even the Department of Cadastre and Land Surveying, which has been renting five floors of offices on Grivas Digenis Avenue since 2017, the rent was set at €13.5 per sq.m.Even based on published market data, office rents in Nicosia will be between €12 and €22 per sqm in 2023.
Even based on published market data, office rents in Nicosia will be between €12 and €22 per sqm in 2023, where of course even this upper limit of €22 refers to luxury offices in expensive locations.
(f) The Legal Service was putting strong pressure on the TDA to complete the project before the retirement date of the current Attorney General and the original plan was for the building to be completed in April 2026. This is in response to the Attorney General's repeated statements that "he will have retired by the time the new building is completed," an aspect that our Office at least never raised. It is significant that, for a building with a budget of €45 million plus VAT, for which a significant amount of time would have been required for the study to be carried out by the contractor and for which the TOR considered that a period of 4.5 years was the minimum possible, the Attorney General, just days before the project was to be advertised in June 2023, demanded that the period be shortened to 3 or 3.5 years, which was rejected by the TOR. This way the project would have been completed in early 2027 (Mr. Savides retires in September 2027). We stress again that this aspect was never raised by our Agency.
On the basis of the above, we maintain the position that for the housing needs of the Legal Service, a documented analysis of all possible options should be made, as provided for in Part XI ("Selection and Implementation of Public Investment Projects") of the Fiscal Responsibility and Fiscal Framework Law (Law No. 20(I)/2014) and by assessing the housing needs and priorities of other Agencies and Ministries. If it is indeed considered that the option of constructing a new building is the optimal solution for the Legal Service, then the building should be designed on the basis of the principles of sustainability, without waste and excesses and with respect to environmental legislation.
(NΓ/KK)
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