Our view: Hopefully, new law will end farce of politicians’ asset declarations

Hopefully, we witnessed the last episode of the farce regarding the submission of asset statements by elected officials on Tuesday. For 20 years, within the framework of the so-called ‘pothen esches’ law, politicians submitted anything they wanted in their asset statement, not even bothering to complete the form properly. Nobody looked at these forms, apart from journalists who wrote light-hearted reports about them, aware that they could not be taken seriously.

Politicians turned the ‘pothen esches’ law, which was meant to ensure against politicians making money unlawfully, into a mockery. Under the law, passed in 2004, elected officials as well as government ministers, were obliged to submit their personal assets on assuming office and to carry on doing this, at specified intervals, until they left office. The theory was that if they had made money unlawfully while serving the public it would be evident in the statement they submitted.

The assumption that a corrupt politician would honestly complete an assets form, that nobody checked anyway, is beyond belief. Yet this charade went on for 20 years, many politicians openly showing their contempt for the law. For example, looking at the asset statement of the former president Nicos Anastasiades, when he was elected, one would have concluded that he was a pauper, not the owner of a successful law office which boasted several Russian plutocrats as clients.

After 20 years of this joke, a new law was prepared and it will come into effect in October, when the list of people obliged to submit an asset statement will be expanded to cover other state officials. Deputies who drafted the new law, to their credit, have tried to address the glaring weaknesses and holes of the old law.

The five-year capital statement submitted by a politician will have to be audited and signed by a qualified accountant. The spouse and underaged children of the politician/official would also have to submit signed statements. Statements would have to include the value of company shares and bonds held by an official; even works of art would have to be included in the statement according to the law.   

Most importantly, the statements would be checked by external auditors as well as the Tax Commissioner, once they have been submitted. No longer would a committee of deputies be in charge of checking the statements submitted. We doubt the committee members checked any of the statements submitted by their colleagues.

The new law is a great improvement on the law of 2004 as it has closed all the holes that existed and introduced the concept of audited asset statements. The law now puts pressure on certified accountants to ensure that accurate asset statements are submitted, as they will have to sign them. All that remains is for the new law to be implemented when it comes into effect in October.