Cyprus’ EU Presidency head resigns

Andreas Moleskis, Head of the Secretariat of the Cypriot EU Presidency, resigned on Wednesday over allegations of nepotism for a job appointment in Brussels.
Moleskis was criticised by Auditor General Chrystalla Yiorkadji during a parliamentary watchdog committee hearing on Tuesday after the newspaper Politis suggested that the recruitment process had been rigged. It also alleged that the winning candidate had bid 500 euros less than others and that he was Moleskis’ daughter’s boyfriend.
The former head of the state Planning Bureau who took over last year as general coordinator for the Secretariat of the Cypriot EU Presidency in the second half of 2012, has denied any wrongdoing, but said he was resigning as a matter of principle and suggested that the Auditor General had relied solely on the newspaper reports.
According to media reports, Chrystalla Yiorkadji was asked by the government to investigate the matter after it was reported earlier this month that Athanasios Kayiaras, 28, who got the events coordinator contract in Brussels, was the boyfriend and cohabitant of Moleskis’ daughter.
Kayiaras got the job ahead of three other applicants, after submitting the lowest bid at €119,000. The other three submitted the same bid: €119,500, while the ceiling set by the state was €120,000.
Kayiaras has since resigned the €60,000 a year job for “reasons of dignity.”
The four who had submitted a bid for the job had not been selected through an open tenders procedure but were short-listed from a pool of around 300 applications submitted by people soliciting work with the secretariat ahead of the assumption of the EU presidency in July 2012.
It later emerged that the all bidders, as well as Moleskis’ daughter Melina, knew each other.