NICOSIA: Finance Minister Michalis Sarris resigned yesterday, hours after a judicial probe was launched into how Cyprus was pushed to the verge of bankruptcy before having to agree a crippling eurozone bailout.
He said he was stepping down as he would need to cooperate with judges probing the failure of Laiki Bank, of which he was chairman for much of last year. The bank’s collapse was a major contributor to the island’s near financial meltdown.
President Nicos Anastasiades accepted his resignation with “sadness” and lauded his “high political ethos” for stepping down to facilitate the probe.
The president named current labour minister, 40-year-old economist Haris Georgiades, to replace Sarris, spokesman Christos Stylianides said.
Zeta Emilianidou, permanent secretary at the commerce ministry, becomes the first woman in the cabinet, taking over Georgiades’s post, Stylianides added.
Meanwhile, the government wrapped up talks with international lenders that will open the way for Cyprus to receive a ¤10bn bailout, Stylianides said.
“Today we have completed the forming of the memorandum, which is a precondition for the loan agreement,” he said, adding that the period to implement the deal was extended by two years to 2018 to “ease pressure on the economy.”
And the central bank announced an easing of capital controls imposed last week, raising the limit on business transactions from ¤5,000 to ¤25,000 and allowing people to issue cheques of up to ¤9,000. With public anger mounting, the government set up a judicial inquiry yesterday into the banking collapse.
Anastasiades called on the three-judge commission — George Pikkis, Panayiotis Kallis and Yiannakis Constantinides — to investigate himself and his family members as a “matter of priority” and with “extra vigour”.
This is seen as a move to counter unsubstantiated allegations that his relatives used privileged information to get money out of the country before deposits were locked down.
Accusations have also been made against other leading politicians and business figures that they took advantage of their position to protect their assets from a hit on bank deposits imposed by EU-led creditors last month.
“A series of acts or omissions from those authorised to manage the economy or the banking system led the country to the brink of bankruptcy, the dissolution of one its largest banks and the loss of billions from an impairment of deposits,” Anastasiades said at the swearing-in ceremony.
AFP
