Complaint lodged over Ercan project
POLICE have been asked to investigate claims of misconduct in a stalled 300-million-euro project to transform Ercan airport with new terminal buildings and two extra runways.
People’s Party (HP) leader and newly elected MP Kudret Özersay said he had lodged a formal complaint to police over government tenders, or the lack of them, for work on the prestigious scheme.
“The armour of immunity will no longer exist for some former ministers who could not win the election to become parliamentarians,” he said in a social media posting on Friday last week.
“For this reason, a few moments ago we made a complaint to police on the basis that they had caused a loss to the state.
“We will continue to do whatever is necessary. We never speak simply to say that we have spoken. We have the will for action.”
Dr Özersay said the complaint was based on circumstances surrounding the project to turn Ercan into a world-class airport, which has been dogged by unresolved property ownership issues. It was claimed last year that building work at Ercan had been carried out without an official tender process and that this had caused a loss to TRNC finances.
The matter boiled over in Parliament in June when main opposition Republican Turkish Party (CTP) leader Tufan Erhürman asked why the government had extended a 25-year “build-operatetransfer” lease granted to the T&T consortium involved in the expansion by another four years, saying this could only be approved by the courts.
Then transport and public works minister Kemal Dürüst told MPs at the time he saw “nothing wrong” with the extension — prompting then foreign minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu to state that he had been unaware of the decision.
Amid a political and media storm, Mr Ertuğruloğlu also claimed the Ercan tender had been “given to the wrong firm” and disputed the amount of money owed to the state by T&T, adding the comment: “Whatever anyone says, Ercan is not subject to healthy regulation and neither are its finances or its construction.”
Both Mr Dürüst and Mr Ertuğruloğlu lost their parliamentary seats in January 7’s general election.
Responding on social media to Dr Özersay’s announcement, Mr Dürüst said: “In every construction project undertaken by the ministry, we did so after ascertaining the views of the attorneygeneral. Every step was taken on a legal basis . . .
“We are able to account for everything concerning Ercan or any other issue. We have not been involved in any action that can be deemed illegal or which has caused a loss to the state.”
Despite several attempts, Cyprus Today was unable to contact Mr Ertuğruloğlu for comment.