A total of 50 licensed porters got over €30 million in compensation before the Mediterranean island’s ports of Limassol and Larnaca got to be privatized.
This shocking tax payers’ expense took place even though none of the porters was eligible by law to compensation, according to a leaked report by the Auditor General’s Office.
The report covers the Cyprus Ports Authority’s financial state of play for the years 2016-2020, Philenews also said on Tuesday.
Specifically, €27 million was given to 28 licensed porters in Limassol and €3.6 million to 22 licensed porters in Larnaca as compensation for the termination of their licenses.
In addition, the porters’ activity was deemed to have been carried out illegally, according to the Commission for the Protection of Competition.
Within the process of outsourcing the commercial activities of the ports of Limassol and Larnaca to strategic investors, the abolition of the institution of licensed porters was proposed.
The move aimed at making the handling of basic operations and in particular freight traffic in ports more flexible. That was when the issue of their compensation was raised and finally concluded.