Cabinet tells Tselepos to resign

The government has sent a letter to the Head of the Competition Commission, Christodoulos Tselepos, asking him to reply whether the government should refrain from renewing his contract when it expires end of the year.

In effect, the government is seeking to end Tselepos’ contract prematurely, citing a pending forgery case against him as reason enough to assume his employment is not in the public interest.

Tselepos argues the case has yet to be heard, meaning he is innocent until proven guilty. He further argues that the government is using this as an excuse to get rid of him because he refused to serve financial interests while in office.

The Commissioner specifically pointed the finger at Commerce Minister George Lillikas, alleging that the minister had twice interfered in his work over the acquisition of a betting Glory Worldwide betting operations by the Greek gaming giant OPAP.

Tselepos has often come under fire from big businesses on account of the various decisions he has to make in executing his mandate to ensure healthy competition in the marketplace.

Tselepos has also come under strong criticism by ANT1 TV boss and prominent lawyer Loukis Papaphilippou over the way the Competition Commission ruled in the awarding of the coverage of live football matches by LTV.

Tselepos has also come under fire from CyTA for the imposition of various fines as well as for revoking recent price cuts on a range of services, including the lucrative mobile telephony.