Contrary to the assertions of the presidential palace, a document leaked to the press on Thursday showed that the government has not disclosed to parliament the names of the donors to a private support fund managed by the First Lady.
Daily Politis got hold of and published the document, purportedly from the state treasurer and dated April 14 of this year. The document was sent to parliament. It does not list any donor names, only the amounts.
The latest controversy over the ‘Social Support Agency’ – raising funds to cover tuition and accommodation for disadvantaged students – broke out after President Nikos Christodoulides refused to sign off on a law passed earlier this year that would mandate making public the names of persons or companies donating €5,000 or more.
The fund, which accepts private donations, was first established in 2014 and placed under the wing of then-first lady Andri Anastasiades, before being passed on to Philippa Karsera Christodoulides when her husband became president last year.
After MPs complained that the president’s veto of the disclosures law trampled on the concept of transparency, the presidential palace hit back saying that the fund is managed by the state treasurer and that “all accounts are submitted to the auditor-general and to parliament with full transparency”.
In brief, the government’s contention was that while the donors retain their anonymity from the wider public, their names are available to parliament via internal official correspondence.
But the document revealed by Politis indicates otherwise. It names no donors whatsoever. The chart merely features three rows – the first for donors ‘of Cypriot provenance’, the second ‘of Russian provenance’ and the third ‘of Arab provenance’. The rows feature only a checkmark for these three types of donors – again, no other identifiers.
According to the chart, in 2016 the ‘Social Support Agency’ had raised €1 million in donations. This gradually declined to €260,000 in 2022. During 2023 – the first year of Christodoulides’ presidency –donations spiked to nearly €2.27 million.
By 2023, total donations since 2014 reached €6.48 million.
The chart also shows the number of student beneficiaries, per year: 355 in 2016; 504 in 2017; 610 in 2018; 447 in 2019; 392 in 2020; 494 in 2021; 426 in 2022; and 493 in 2023.
The current First Lady had twice appeared at the House ethics committee debating the bill that would mandate donor disclosure. In opposing the proposed disclosures, she argued that the publicity would in fact discourage prospective donors.
To which some MPs replied that donors – especially corporations – would be more than glad to advertise their charity.
Critics further suggested the fund could be abused as a vehicle for vote harvesting during election time.
