Seventy-three of the 94 recent appointments to semi-governmental organisations were made from among candidates recommended by Cyprus’ Advisory Council, the House Institutions Committee heard on Wednesday.

The committee was examining the institutional role and operation of the Advisory Council following the latest appointments. The selection of 21 people who were not included in the council’s recommendations prompted questions from MPs from DISY, AKEL, the Alma movement and Direct Democracy, who argued that such departures should be fully justified.

The issue has centred on the extent of the Advisory Council’s role and the circumstances under which the government can appoint candidates outside its recommendations.

Government Under-Secretary to the President Irene Piki stressed that the council has an advisory role and that its recommendations are not binding on the Cabinet.

She said, however, that the overwhelming majority of appointments involved candidates who had been recommended by the council, adding that the relevant decisions and justifications had been published.

Government says Cabinet retains final authority

Piki said the council was established in 2023 to assist with the selection of boards of directors for semi-governmental and other public-law bodies.

The system had since undergone a series of improvements, she said, including allowing the council to interview candidates for chairperson positions.

For the latest appointments, 1,282 people expressed an interest in positions across 12 organisations, according to Piki.

She initially referred to 74 of the 94 positions being filled by people included in the council’s recommendations, while later statements put the figure at 73. The latter figure was also cited by the Institutions Committee and in her concluding remarks.

“The Advisory Council evaluates and makes recommendations; the Cabinet takes the decisions,” Piki said, adding that the question of giving the council a formal statutory basis should be examined.

She also stressed that the Cabinet, as part of the executive authority provided for under the Constitution, remains responsible for appointing the boards of public-law entities.

According to Piki, the government’s additional selections took into account the specific needs of each organisation, the profile of the positions, the overall composition of each board, as well as candidates’ knowledge, experience and skills and, where necessary, geographical representation.

She said the decisions and their justifications had been made public because an effective board should be assessed as a whole.

MPs question departures from recommendations

Institutions Committee chairman and DISY MP Demetris Demetriou said the issue had arisen following the latest appointments to semi-governmental and other organisations.

He questioned the absence of explanations for appointments involving people who had not been included in the Advisory Council’s recommendations and asked how many chairpersons of semi-governmental organisations had been appointed outside the council’s proposals.

DISY MP Michalis Fellas also asked Advisory Council chairman George Aresti about the criteria used to assess candidates.

AKEL MP Konstantinos Konstantinou questioned whether the rules established by the Cabinet itself had been followed.

AKEL MP Anastasia Hasikou subsequently focused on what she described as the lack of justification for the approximately 20 per cent of appointments that fell outside the council’s recommendations.

Alma MP Irene Charalambidou also questioned the 21 appointments, suggesting that they could have originated from party lists. This was presented as a possibility rather than an established fact.

Advisory Council says recommendations are not binding

Aresti reiterated that the Advisory Council has a consultative role and does not itself make appointments.

He said its members work in five-person committees whose composition changes from case to case. According to Aresti, the committees reach unanimous decisions, taking into account the relevant legislation, candidates’ integrity and standing, as well as their academic and other qualifications.

The council also considers the specific legislation governing each organisation, he said.

Aresti said there had been cases where the council did not consider enough candidates suitable to recommend three people for a position. For chairperson posts, it had sometimes submitted fewer than three names.

He said that, of ten chairperson appointments, the council’s recommendations had not been accepted in two cases and had been accepted in the other eight.

Aresti also said the council had understood from the Cabinet’s decision establishing the process that the government retained the discretion to depart from its recommendations.

Calls for greater transparency

The question of how departures from the Advisory Council’s recommendations should be justified was raised by MPs across several parties.

DIKO MP Panikos Leonidou said a way should be found to explain decisions not to follow the council’s recommendations, while maintaining that the Cabinet’s constitutional powers should remain intact.

DIKO leader Nicolas Papadopoulos welcomed the creation of the Advisory Council, describing it as a consultative body. He said approximately 80 per cent of appointments had been based on its recommendations.

Papadopoulos also described semi-governmental organisations as part of the executive branch responsible for implementing government policy.

During the committee discussion, Advisory Council member Eleni Mouzala criticised DIKO MPs over their previous public comments about the council and questioned appointments involving people who had not applied for the positions.

Other council members defended the work carried out by the body, noting that they perform their duties without remuneration.

Council member Yiannis Mourouzidis proposed that all three candidates recommended for each position should be interviewed personally, rather than interviews being limited to chairperson positions.

Incompatibility checks also discussed

The chairman of the Committee for Investigation of Incompatibilities, Menelaos Tsanggaridis, said checks for potential incompatibilities were conducted under Article 3 of the relevant law.

He said the scope of those checks could be extended where the legislation governing an individual organisation created additional incompatibilities.

Tsanggaridis said incompatibilities had been identified during the filling of some of the latest positions.

IMF assistance planned

Piki also announced that technical assistance from the International Monetary Fund would be provided to help improve the governance of public-law entities.

She said the request had been made in 2025 with the contribution of the European Commission and that IMF representatives were due to meet the Advisory Council on Wednesday to discuss ways of improving its role.

Piki said the establishment of the council represented a move from a system based on party recommendations towards an open process in which citizens could express an interest regardless of political affiliation or personal connections.

She added that the process could continue to be improved and reiterated that the council evaluates candidates and makes recommendations but does not itself appoint board members, conduct recruitment competitions or establish a ranking of successful candidates.

The debate over the 21 appointments therefore focused on the relationship between the council’s recommendations and the Cabinet’s final authority, with MPs raising questions about transparency and justification while government representatives stressed the council’s advisory status.

Source: CNA

Nikos Mesarites