The release of a fund of €146.000 for the upgrade of the "Photo Radar List" photo-marking system was discussed on Monday by the Finance Committee of the Parliament, with the aim of giving the Police the opportunity to serve at the roadblocks extrajudicial fines pending for Turkish Cypriot vehicles.
As reported before the Committee, which discussed the release of the fund to upgrade the system, about 16,000 out-of-court fines related to such vehicles are pending out-of-court.
During the discussion, many questions were asked by members of the Committee and clarifications were requested both on the request for the release of the fund and on the general operation of the system.
Finally, the Committee decided to continue the discussion at its next meeting, in the presence of representatives of the Ministry of Transport.
In statements after the session, AKEL Member of Parliament Andreas Pasiourtidis said that "the insistence of the Government and the Police to release the fund for the Photo Radar List is not commensurate with the haste it should show to justify to the three competent Committees of the Parliament what the company has done to date, but also the Police to be able to serve the unserved out-of-court documents, as well as whether the company complies with its contractual obligations."
"At the moment, the Parliament is called upon to release a fund of about €150,000 to be paid to the company to create a new software to be able to serve unserved out-of-court notices at the roadblocks," he added.
He said, however, that "before we get to that point, someone should come to an assessment of what has happened so far and explain to us the reasons why they are not engaged, in addition to the well-known reason that some cunning people have now learned the trick and do not go to the post office".
He added that the company has a contractual obligation to try two more times with a private beneficiary to serve the out-of-court documents.
Mr. Pasiourtides said that he considers it inconceivable that "tens of thousands of out-of-court notices were tried by servants in Cyprus to serve them and did not find the offenders" and added that "a monument of delay is also the fact that for 3-4 years an amending bill for alternative ways of service has been pending in the Ministries and the Legal Service".
"The state is in such a hurry to serve that it has not yet managed 4 years to close the gaps in the legislation and bring other ways of service," he added.
He also said that if the Government considers that "the game of participating in the tax collection policy of the cameras will also be played by the Parliament, then at least we as a party will not enter into this process". He added that "if they do not adequately justify every request regarding the cameras, it will not be approved and it is up to them – the government and the company – to come and convince us that they have exhausted all the margins based on the existing legislation and their contractual obligations to serve and they did not succeed."
"They should not believe that every time they come to Parliament to approve funds for the cameras, they will take them," he added.
Answering a question if the issue concerns only the Turkish Cypriots, Mr. Pasiourtides said that this started for everyone – and for them to be served out of court at airports and ports – "the state and the government backed down when they realized the legal problems by putting forward the Schengen issue, then they started to indulge in the barricades and police stations and today he tells us that the company has already made the software, limiting the service of out-of-court documents to the Turkish Cypriots, without yet explaining to us that they cannot serve the Turkish Cypriots, since we know every time the camera records which license plate is the one that was reported."
"The Government is trying to come and cover its own inadequacy that left 180,000 out-of-court documents unserved for four years, without coming in time to identify the gaps and problems and bring corrective measures," he concluded.
The Member of Parliament of ELAM, Marios Pelekanos, said that the fund had been committed by the House of Representatives, obviously for very specific reasons and added that "according to the answers we have received today from the representatives of the Police, it does not seem at least to clarify the whole scene".
He said that it would have been good if the representatives of the Ministry of Transport had been invited to the session and added that the discussion of the issue will continue in a subsequent session in the presence of the representatives of the Ministry of Transport.
Mr. Pelekanos said that the question that arises is how it is possible when the Parliament commits a fund to proceed with the procedures and added that this company has completed the production of this software.
He also said that these Turkish Cypriot vehicles "have been illegally imported into our country, they have been cleared by illegal customs, they circulate in the free areas without anyone knowing their unsuitability and this is a serious issue, which as ELAM we will examine, submitting an ex officio matter to the competent Committee".
In relation to the system in general, Mr. Pelekanos said that "it does not seem to be yielding the desired results" and added that this is deduced from "the results published in relation to accidents and fatal accidents in our country".
"Instead of getting better, things are just getting worse, and ELAM's firm position is that we should not choose tax collection methods, such as cameras, to regulate this very serious issue," he added.
He said that we should invest in education and in the creation of the right culture.
The Member of Parliament of Direct Democracy, Yiannis Laouris, said that "we spent two hours today in Parliament and did not understand what issue we were talking about" and added that the problem they were trying to explain to them is how to identify Turkish Cypriots with their cars to serve them with the out-of-court documents.
"An issue that can be solved technically and with specific procedures," he said and added that they did not understand "how it will be solved technically, nor with what procedures".
Mr. Laouris said that he asked to "record the procedures", while he said that because he has been a computer programmer for 30 years and also owns a company, "the cost of what they want to do is a few hundred euros and they are asking for more than 100.000 euros".
"The numbers we are talking about to make a communication between two databases so that they can talk and identify a person with a number and an out-of-court order are outrageous," he added.
He also said that "another outrageous thing" is that the Committee was told that there is a website for out-of-court documents and added that during the session he also went to the specific website and "I found out that I also have an out-of-court complaint with my car 5-6 months ago, but there is no way to even find out where the out-of-court is, nor to pay for it."
CNA
