Tales from the Coffeeshop: Virtuous One exposes solidarity of parasites

THE ENGLISH translation of the first name of the deputy government spokesperson, Doxa Komodromou, is ‘glory,’ which is rather unfortunate considering she did not cover herself in glory with her overtime pay claims, which she was not entitled to but were still sanctioned, by the custodian of the constitution, Prez Nik.

Our supreme ruler, the unforgiving Odysseas, exposed the presidential palace scam at the legislature on Tuesday, releasing the list of all Komodromou’s overtime claims which amounted to €2,486 for the first three months of Nik’s enlightened presidency. It also emerged that the Prez had disobeyed Odysseas for glory.

The merde hit the fan when the House committee discussed the release of another €3,000 for Doxa’s overtime pay, from June to the end of August, and Odysseas told deputies it would be unlawful to give their approval. In fact, he also ordered that Doxa return the €2,486 she had already been paid.

She did not have to return the 11 days off she was also given for her overtime work, because that was permitted.

 

SOME CONTEXT. Komodromou worked in the admin department of the University of Cyprus on a relatively lowly pay-scale (A8). When she was appointed to the joke post of deputy govt spokesperson, (a job created by Nik I, on his election, for Victoras Papadopoulos who was out of work), she assumed she would take the annual salary for the post – €65,000.

This was when boss of bosses Odysseas stepped in and pointed out that Komodromou could not be paid this salary, while holding on to her job at UCy. She would have to resign from the public parasite service, something she was unwilling to do as she wanted a safe job to return to after the political doxa was over.

According to Odysseas, in his role as the state’s legal advisor, Doxa could perform the duties of deputy government spokeswoman, on secondment from the UCy, but would have to be paid her UCy salary, which was half what this unnecessary post would pay a non-public parasite.

 

REFUSING to tolerate this gross injustice against a woman whom he had probably promised a well-paid state position, for her devotion, if he were elected, Prez Nik had to find a way of making things right, so one of his advisors came up with the overtime scam.

In the first three months, Doxa claimed overtime for attending church services, village festivals, cocktail receptions, award ceremonies, making speeches, visiting newspapers, writing speeches and any other function outside public service working hours.

It took her four hours to prepare a speech of a few paragraphs that the Prez made to boy scouts, but even interviews she gave she charged overtime for. She gave Alithia newspaper a four-hour interview, for which she claimed overtime.  What was she talking about for so long? You could talk about your life story in great detail, in less than four hours.

In the June-August list, which amounted to three grand, she claimed seven hours overtime (3pm to midnight) for attending the marathon council of ministers meeting at the Troodos presidential residence. If her status is that of public parasite, she has every right to behave like one, and try to screw even the last cent out of the taxpayer.

 

THE OTHER known beneficiary of the overtime pay scam was a Rik hackette, Maria Statiotis who was seconded to the presidential palace to work as the personal assistant of Nik’s better half PKC. She would be paid overtime for accompanying PKC to social functions.

The palace put in a request to the legislature of €6,800 overtime pay for her from March 1 to the end of this year. How did the palace know how many hours of overtime she would work until the end of the year? It didn’t but, the prez was determined to boost the income of his appointees in spite of Odysseas’ very clear directives.

Nik II was merely following the example set by his mentor, Nik I who appointed a lowly Rik hack (A4 pay scale) to another joke post he created – director of President’s press office – and paid him allowances that tripled his annual salary. Nik I just ignored Odysseas’ orders and directives.

The successor tried to do something similar but did not have the cojones to carry on disobeying our supreme ruler.

 

THE VIRTUOUS ruler spoke of his disappointment over the presidential disobedience in an interview with Rik radio on Wednesday, during which he could not resist using the royal plural. Has he started to believe he is the monarch rather than our overlord?

“I discussed the issue (Komodromou’s appointment) with the president at our extraordinary meeting on 10.5.23. Both inside the hall and outside (in my public comments) I was clear about our position, that had been accepted by the presidency, that the income of Ms Komodromou would be exactly the amount of her pay scale (A8) at UCy…

“No allowance whatsoever over and above her salary. We heard for the first time about an allowance, for supposed overtime work when the request was submitted to the House and there was a discussion at the finance committee.”

Prez Nik had been a very naughty boy, ignoring the law and so openly defying Odysseas, who, nevertheless, said there would be no punishment as the request for the overtime funds had been withdrawn.

 

THERE would be consequences, however, as the boss of bosses, according to press reports, has decided to investigate the pay packages of all 153 employees working for the presidency and services linked to the presidency, to establish if they are taking overtime pay.

There are 41 public parasites on secondment at the palace plus a host of advisors about whom nothing is known because no info has been released to the legislature or Odysseas. Some are known because they are close family friends, relatives or koumbari of the presidential couple.

Some had gone under the radar, but Politis published the names of a few of the beneficiaries of presidential patronage, more vulgarly referred to as rusfeti. The husband of PKC’s sister is director of the president’s office, the daughter of her other sister, her niece, works at the protocol department, which also employs their koumera Pitsa Xiouri, who was on the lowest rung of the foreign ministry ladder, but wielded immense power when Nik was foreign minister as she ran his office. Her husband, the koumbaros, works for the presidential guard. The director of the prez’s diplomatic office is also a koumera.

With Odysseas getting ready for the kill, I fear for the future of the koumbraocracy.

 

THE BIG question now, is whether, on his return to Kyproulla, Prez Nik will take responsibility for the overtime scam or pass it on to one of his minions.

The candidate for fall-guy is the government spokesman, Mini Me, who had signed off Komodromou’s overtime pay claims, but you would need a very low IQ to believe that the apprentice platitudes salesman would have done this without orders from his boss. Mini Me would not go to the toilet without asking his boss’ permission.

Even the order to the UCy to pay Komodromou’s March-May overtime, although she was not working for it, could have come from one source.

The prez could of course claim he was just carrying out the wishes of society, which he always listened to. It is not beyond the bounds of credibility that society, in one of its meetings with the prez, demanded that Doxa was paid the deputy government spokesman’s salary in full, as she was doing the job, without the title.

 

SOCIETY might not have made such a demand but the reality is that there is solidarity among public parasites. They all endeavour to maximise their earnings at the expense of the taxpayer, both collectively, as a union, and individually, like Doxa and Maria.

Having belonged to the public parasite class themselves, the prez and his wife were bound to feel sympathy for the plight of Doxa and Maria, whose access to additional moolah from the taxpayer had been blocked by the Javert-like Odysseas. The couple had maximised their income from the taxpayer when they were state employees and could not possibly deny this right to their comrades.

When our prez, as a foreign ministry employee returned to Kyproulla from Brussels, he carried on taking overseas allowance for another four months and refused to return the money when he was found out. In Brussels, the couple were both claiming rent allowance while living in the same house. The there were the private school fees…

 

THE QUESTION is whether Doxa was such a valuable member of the government that the Prez is willing to take so much stick and have his squeaky-clean image tarnished for her sake? She had an undistinguished career in the admin of the university and – to use his catch-phrase – has no added value for the government.

She hardly ever makes public statements on behalf of the government (is this because she is not trusted?) confirming that the position of deputy government spokesman is just an excuse to pay a salary to friend of the prez. But despite not justifying her Scale A8 salary, she was also claiming loads of overtime pay with the prez’s blessing.

Our Prez, it seems, will do anything for glory.