The Cypriot parliament spent €138,120 on furniture and air conditioning installations, according to an audit report.
The Audit Office found parliament spent €77,500 on canteen furniture and €60,620 on air conditioning installation in the parliamentary courtyard through direct award contracts without competitive tendering.
The furniture was approved by the parliament speaker and purchased without public tender from a company whose director also served as the architect for the space design, the audit report showed.
Parliament justified the direct award by classifying the furniture as “artwork”, using a procedure intended for “creation or acquisition of unique artwork or artistic events”, though auditors said this classification did not apply to furniture procurement.
The report also detailed a London trip by the parliament speaker and eight accompanying staff who stayed at a luxury hotel costing €15,172 for three nights, with the speaker’s accommodation alone costing €1,207 per night.
Parliament allocated €100,000 to political parties for information purposes from a budget line intended for conferences and overseas missions, the audit found, describing this as inconsistent with the fund’s designated purpose.
Two outstanding financial issues remain unresolved: €2,091,200 in unspent state funding from the 2018 presidential elections that eight parliamentary parties must return, and €575,955 in 2021 regular funding that has not been redistributed among parliamentary parties.
Parliament’s total operating expenses reached €29,419,499 in 2023, the audit showed.
The air conditioning purchase violated procurement law by using summary procedures for contracts above the €50,000 limit for such processes, auditors said.
Parliament defended the furniture purchase, saying open procurement was not possible because the design required specific high-quality furniture and materials to meet modern design needs and the building’s aesthetic requirements.
Regarding the air conditioning, parliament said the decision aimed to make the building more functional by extending usable space given limited internal areas and the need to maintain comfortable temperatures year-round.
The London trip included five parliament officials, two Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation staff, and one security person who all stayed at the same luxury hotel as the speaker. The audit noted that invoices for €7,674 in VIP airport facilities at Heathrow lacked complete details including names of all users.
Parliament spending from the conferences and overseas missions budget increased 33.3% to €962,476 in 2023 from €722,201 in 2022, exceeding the allocated budget despite additional credits of €210,000.
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