Policeman ‘given promotion because he could play clarinet’

A police officer was reportedly handed a promotion on the strength of his proficiency in playing the clarinet.

According to daily Phileleftheros, the man was made a sergeant as his certificates in clarinet, keyboard and wind orchestration were each treated as separate qualifications.

As such, in the police’s points-based system for deciding who is awarded promotion, the man was reportedly awarded a disproportionate amount of points for the qualification.

However, the newspaper said he was then demoted after complaints were made about the matter, with one of the police officers who submitted the complaint saying they were passed up for a promotion in 2022 due to the other officer’s clarinet skills.

They added that the matter had been referred to the anti-corruption authority and is now being evaluated.

In this regard, the newspaper reported the Cyprus Agency of Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Higher Education (Dipae) had said that it did not recognise the musical proficiency certificates as being equivalent to university degrees.

This, in turn, opens the possibility of some of the documents in the police officer’s record having been forged, as there was a document on his file from the education ministry which reportedly seemed to suggest otherwise.