The government is in the final stretch for the re-announcement of the projects in the Akamas National Forest Park, while the Legal Service is examining whether the findings of the Audit Office show indications of committing criminal or other offenses. At the same time, the weaknesses of law enforcement in the protected area remain in the foreground, with new complaints that an online fundraiser is underway for the reconstruction of an arbitrary property destroyed by fire, despite the established illegalities.
The long-term delay of the Akamas projects, environmental violations, the management of millions of euros and the attribution of possible responsibilities were at the center of yesterday's meeting of the Parliamentary Audit Committee. The discussion lasted about three hours, with the participation of representatives of state services, local authorities and environmental organizations, and was marked by intense controversies over the findings of the Audit Office, the responsibility of the competent state services and the effects that the prolonged suspension of projects has on local communities.
The Minister of Agriculture, Christos Senekis, gave a specific timetable for the restart of the first phase, stating that the new tender will be announced within 2026, the works are scheduled to start in early 2027 and the goal is to be completed in February 2028.
The report of the Audit Office to the Legal Service
As the representative of the Legal Service, Lina Hatziathanasiou, stated before the Committee, the special report of the Audit Office was forwarded to the Legal Service on October 7, 2026 and is being studied by a team of officials, in order to determine whether there is a reason to investigate the possible commission of criminal offenses. She avoided going into details, despite questions from MPs that "fell like rain" and mainly concerned the possible responsibilities as well as the amicable settlement reached between the state and the previous contractor. He noted, however, that the questions raised will be transferred to the competent officials to be answered in writing to the Commission.
The issue of the settlement was of particular concern to the discussion, since, despite the confirmation that the claims of both sides have been withdrawn, the exact financial content of the agreement was not disclosed. However, according to the general director of the General Directorate of Environment of the Ministry of Agriculture, Costas Konstantinou, during the session, the agreement was reached through a preliminary protocol procedure, with the assistance of the Legal Service and the approval of the Ministry of Finance.
"We were not given the investigations"
The report of the Auditor General, Andreas Papakonstantinou, that his Service did not secure the reports of the four administrative and disciplinary investigations that had been ordered after the suspension of the projects, also caused a particular sensation. As he explained, despite the relevant requests, he only received a brief briefing on some conclusions and not the full conclusions. "They have not been given to us by the Ministry of Agriculture," he said, adding that the Audit Office was forced to conduct its own investigation.
According to the special report, the weaknesses are not limited to a single stage of the project, but concern the environmental assessment, the integration of environmental conditions into the construction plans and their implementation during the execution of the works. The Audit Office records, among other things, over-excavations, problems in hydraulic works and deviations from binding environmental terms. It is characteristic that, of the 19 additional or modified conditions imposed after the start of the works, 17 had not been fully fulfilled during the audit, while for the other two, which concerned over-excavation, the environmental burden could not be reversed.
New plans and disagreements with the Audit Office
For his part, the Minister of Agriculture, Christos Senekis, said that the government is taking the recommendations of the Audit Office seriously and that it has already proceeded or launched corrective measures. He clarified, however, that the Ministry maintains different views on certain conclusions, mainly regarding technical and institutional issues. "Our approach is neither to downplay problems that have been identified, nor to let the impression be created that the projects were promoted without an environmental assessment," he said, insisting that the planned studies had been carried out and environmental conditions had been set. It argued that a distinction must be made between environmental assessment, technical design and construction application, as not every technical adaptation automatically constitutes a substantial environmental deviation.
The Minister acknowledged, however, that there were weaknesses in the monitoring mechanisms. "We recognize as a weakness the absence of a clear protocol for recording, evaluating and notifying any discrepancies," he noted, adding that this gap will be addressed. He announced that the modified construction plans of the first phase have been approved and that a new tender is expected soon, with a reduced environmental footprint and continuous supervision by an environmental inspector. Visitor service hubs have been reduced from 14 to eight, while additional hydraulic and ecological studies are being promoted, with an emphasis on the projects in Toxeftra and Avakas. The new plans, as he clarified, will be resubmitted to the Environmental Authority, so that their compliance with the environmental terms can be examined.
Regarding the institutional framework for the protection of the area, the Minister announced that the decrees for the special conservation objectives of the Akamas Peninsula have been approved and are being forwarded for publication.
"The state is unable to enforce the law"
The Auditor General made a separate reference to the illegal constructions and activities that are still located in Akamas. In fact, he referred to an online fundraiser for the reconstruction of an arbitrary property destroyed by fire, commenting that "it seems that the state is unable to enforce the law". It is recalled that on September 18, 2026, a fire, which appears to have been caused by lightning strikes, destroyed a restaurant in the South Bay of Lara. According to the special report of the Audit Office, the premises were illegally located on state forest land, while a demolition order had been issued at first instance, which had not been executed due to a pending appeal.
The Minister of Agriculture, for his part, stated that the Department of Forests has closed about 80% of illegal accesses, while with the full operation of the Park and the Park Guard, surveillance is expected to be strengthened. He also pointed out that, for arbitrary constructions, there are procedures pending before the Judiciary, while the enforcement powers are divided between different Authorities.
Controversies over organizations
The session was also marked by intense controversies about the role of environmental organizations. The Commissioner for the Environment and Animal Welfare, Elias Myrianthous, argued that the prolonged delay of the projects burdens the natural environment and local communities, while depriving them of opportunities for development.
The need for the projects to proceed was also underlined by the president of the Paphos District Self-Government Organization, Charalambos Pittokopitis, arguing that the prolonged pending issue causes problems both to the environment and to local communities, while he defended the work of the Department of Forests. The mayor of Polis Chrysochous, Yiotis Papachristofi, also strongly criticized the environmental organizations, claiming that through their reactions to the projects in Akamas "they found a reason to exist". Understandably, these reports provoked the reaction of representatives of the organizations, with the president of the Committee, Zacharias Koulias, intervening and asking them to focus on the essential issues of the session.
For their part, the environmental organizations claimed that the report of the Audit Office confirms the complaints they had made about the violations in Akamas. Terra Cypria requested that the findings of the four administrative and disciplinary investigations be submitted to the Parliament and made public, so that responsibilities can be attributed where they arise, while insisting on the need to re-evaluate the projects based on the specific conservation objectives. The Federation of Environmental Organizations of Cyprus stressed that the Akamas Peninsula must be protected as a single ecosystem and called for the necessary protection decrees and the restoration of environmental damage to be preceded. The Friends of Akamas also expressed reservations about the restart of the projects, with Dr. Kyriakos Tsimillis calling for a comprehensive review of the plans and posing, on the occasion of the Minister's announcements for a smaller environmental footprint, the question: "If they can now, why hadn't they aimed at the smallest environmental footprint from the beginning?".
