The government had identified the problems in the Reform of Local Government since assuming office, emphasized the Minister of Interior, Constantinos Ioannou, when asked about the issue of reform and the discussion taking place in the public sphere in recent days.
As he said, “We have mentioned these problems many times. Personally, during my presence in the House of Representatives, as well as in my public interventions. So, what is being said about why this issue has emerged now is not true. For months now, we have been mentioning the specific problems that we identified in the legislation.
For example, the fact that the mergers of municipalities were carried out without taking into account, in some cases, the geographical, mainly economic and demographic data, creates a problem, in the sense that some municipalities will not be able to provide the same services and have the same benefits from the reform, thus they will not be as sustainable as other municipalities. I have been mentioning this for months.”
Furthermore, Mr. Ioannou also expressed concern about the excessive number of Deputy Mayors, the remuneration of Deputy Mayors, and the dysfunction that the decision to elect the President of the District Self-Government Organization will cause, although this provision was not there from the beginning.
“However, I want to emphasize something. We want to be honest and sincere with the people. So, we must inform the people about the problems. We must inform the people that some citizens will not benefit from the reform as others. I also want to mention that certainly the legislation as passed is not ideal, but it is much better than the current model,” emphasized the Minister of Interior.
He assured, however, about the commitment of the Government and the Ministry of Interior specifically, to the effort to implement the reform.
“We will fully implement the legislation as passed by the Parliament. We are at the disposal of the legislative authority, and I have already spoken with Aris Damianou (Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Interior), with whom I have an excellent cooperation, and we will meet in the coming days to discuss the issues and problems. The willingness from the Parliament exists,” he said, explaining that changes cannot be made now, although attempts were made last May for some changes.
“It was not accepted by some parties, not by all parties. So, what they accuse the Government of not doing anything about, we took actions, this is documented, but those belong to the past. We are here, committed, to implement the law. Whatever problems arise along the way after the elections, with good will, we will solve them for the benefit of the citizen. At the end of the day, we all work and have a common goal to improve the daily lives of citizens,” stressed the Minister.
Equally important, however, is to mention that “the implementation of the reform, as passed, is in the hands of the Local Authorities. That is, it is the Mayors themselves who are called upon to implement it. It is not the Ministry of Interior that is called upon at this moment to implement the reform. The Temporary Councils, as they have been formed, consist of Mayors”.
“It has been identified that some are in a more advanced stage, some not. There are data problems. For example, it is inconceivable that four months before the implementation of the legislation, only the Temporary Council of Nicosia has found premises for the Housing of the District Organization. The Ministry of Interior does not have the tools to impose something. I cannot, as Minister of Interior, impose on a person in the Councils to rent. That is up to them.”
He also mentioned that the role of the Ministry of Interior is coordinative and supportive. “We stand by the Municipal Authorities, next to the Mayors, to help them. Whether it concerns the “E-Village” System, where there may also be problems, or the organizational charts, or their budgets,” explained Mr. Ioannou.
“In conclusion, I want to convey a message to the Local Authorities. We need to step up our efforts. We are here to help. At the end of the day, this reform must start with the least possible problems. They have made reforms before. I was responsible for the biggest reform that took place then. Three months before the start of the GESY, we had no Pediatricians in the GESY. It started with some problems, we improve it to have all the benefits it offers,” he noted.
Asked if there is a possibility that when the reform is implemented, some municipalities will not survive, the Minister of Interior clarified that the issue of survival does not arise and reiterated that in some cases, certain municipalities will not have the benefits of the reform. Referring to cases where municipalities remained with the same or slightly increased demographic data, they will not have the same benefits as other municipalities.
“The reform is being done for municipalities to merge and through mergers to increase the population, to have economies of scale. When a municipality remains small, there will be no economies of scale, so the citizens of this municipality will not benefit from the advantages of the reform and will not be sustainable within the framework of the reform,” he emphasized.
