Filenews 19 November 2020 - by Angelos Nikolaou, Michalis Hatzivasilis
Even the pretences were not respected by the General Accountant of the Republic Rhea Georgiou in relation to the favouritism support to her husband and owner of the Cypra slaughterhouse. The new serious complaints of the MP of DIKO, Pavlos Mylonas, demonstrate the seriousness of the situation and involve even more the wife of the owner of the slaughterhouse George Georgiou and General Accountant of the Republic Rhea Georgiou (Colokoroni). In particular, Rhea Georgiou, as president of the Public Oversight Authority of the Audit Profession (ADEP), which is the public independent supervisory authority responsible for the supervision of the Audit Profession in Cyprus, has a responsibility to check whether private audit firms comply with the code of conduct.
It appears, however, that she closed her eyes against the audit firm belonging to her brother Panagiotis Kolokotronis, who, in violation of the Auditors Act 2017 (Law 53(I)/2017), could not be appointed as auditor of a company belonging to the husband of the president of ADEEP. The appointment of that audit firm is therefore unlawful and the action of the President of the Authority controlling it is a cover-up.
In fact, the approved accountant and registered auditor Panagiotis Kolokotronis signs on behalf of audit and accounting firm AuditPro Services Ltd the report and financial statements as an independent auditor of the activities of cypra Bioenergy interests of the husband of the General Accountant Rhea Georgiou.
Among other things, the responsibilities of the ADEP in the Auditors Law state that "The ADEP, through the Board of Directors, is responsible for supervising the procedures for disciplinary investigation and referral of statutory auditors and statutory audit firms to disciplinary proceedings before the Disciplinary Committee or other responsible body and in general the functioning of the disciplinary system.
At the same time, the same legislation clearly describes the independence and objectivity to be observed by auditors, indicating, inter alia, that they must ensure their independence vis-à-vis the audited entity.
The legislation states that when carrying out a statutory audit, any statutory auditor, as well as any natural person able to directly or in indirect influence the outcome of the statutory audit, have an obligation to ensure their independence from the audited entity and not to participate in the decision-making process there.
Furthermore, it is noted that statutory auditors do not carry out a statutory audit where there is a risk of self-review, self-interest, defence, intimacy or intimidation arising from an economic, personal, business, work or other relationship between:
(a) The statutory auditor, the statutory audit firm, its network, and any natural person able to influence the outcome of the statutory audit, and (b) the audited entity, resulting in an objective, prudent and informed third party, taking into account the applicable safeguards, concluding that the independence of the statutory auditor or audit firm is being undermined.
It should be noted that yesterday morning P. Mylonas requested the intervention of the Attorney General in relation to relentless questions about the Cypra slaughterhouse, which remain unanswered. In particular, he called on the Association of Certified Accountants/Auditors of Cyprus to answer who was the auditor of the Cypra slaughterhouse by 2017, as well as who is president of the Public Oversight Authority of the Audit Profession.
The other day he was declaring self-contained, yesterday it was an office.
A major issue arises from the attitude of the director of the Cypra slaughterhouse who seems to avoid his presence in the House, invoked the cases of coronavirus in his premises, stating that he is in quarantine and expressed his intention to attend the next meeting of the Commission.
So while the director of the Cypra slaughterhouse informed the House Labour Committee in a letter that he was in self-contained conditions due to cases of coronavirus in his premises and could not attend its meeting examining the matter, yesterday he was normally in his office as if nothing had happened.
In fact, the statement to the "F" of the police spokesman Christos Andreou, that after an investigation by the Police through the tracing team of the Ministry of Health, it was found that the specific owner of the slaughterhouse was not registered as contact, since he had been declared as administrative staff. The police investigation was carried out because an operation was to be carried out at his slaughterhouse and there was a problem in contacting this owner if he had stated that he was in quarantine.
Finally, after the information provided by the Police from the Ministry of Health, he carried out the inspection operation at the Cypra slaughterhouse where his owner was arrested after six asylum seekers and three who had not declared their work were found to be working illegally. The control operation was organised by the Immigration and Immigration Service (YAM) and the Department of Labour of the Ministry of Labour, both in Cypra and in the A&A slaughterhouse in Agios Ioannis Malountas.
According to the Police, six foreigners were found in the Cypra slaughterhouse without a work permit and three undeclared workers. The six foreigners and the owner were arrested. Three illegal aliens and three undeclared persons were identified at the A&A slaughterhouse. The three outlaws and the owner were arrested. All those arrested will be charged in writing for illegal employment to be called to court at a later date, while they will be fined an out-of-court fine of up to 30,000 for one owner and about 21,000 for the other.
Meanwhile, investigations into the 61 undeclared workers at the Cypra slaughterhouse are continuing but because several of them are quarantined due to coronavirus, they cannot give a depositition. The investigation into their living conditions is also not progressing since it is not possible to obtain a statement or contact from officials of the Department of Labour.
