Deputy government spokeswoman Doxa Komodromou said on Friday that she has no intention of resigning from her position at the University of Cyprus after the auditor-general said she is seeking to extend her contract there and work at the presidential palace.
“I have no intention of resigning from the University of Cyprus if it is not requested of me by the attorney general,” she said.
Komodromou also rubbished claims by Auditor-General Odysseas Michalides at the House audit committee meeting on Thursday, where he said that she had also worked at a private television station without having received the proper approval from UCy.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, Michaelides’ spokesman Marios Petrides said the auditor-general would refer the matter to President Nikos Christodoulides.
He added that on February 28 the position at the university should have been vacated, as in the case of Foreign Minister Constandinos Kombos, a professor at UCy, ahead of taking on the position at the ministry.
“We do not understand how it can be in effect for one person and not the other,” he said.
The university also came under fire at the committee meeting on Thursday for its frivolous spending by keeping a Nobel laureate on the payroll.
Michaelides flagged a series of irregularities – including the university keeping Nobel laureate Christopher Pissarides on the payroll.
Michaelides presented the findings of his special report on the state-funded university for the years 2019 and 2020 at the House audit committee.
Pissarides, who in 2010 won the Nobel Prize in Economics, is listed on the faculty as Professor of European Studies.
But according to the auditor-general, in 2015 Pissarides (whom he did not refer to by name) retired from the university at the age of 67.
His contract then got renewed – unlawfully according to Michaelides – until the year 2026.
But essentially Pissarides has little to do with the university – he gives one lecture per semester and doesn’t participate in any research programmes.
