As it became known on Monday, one of the four bills included in the recently passed package of laws to create a subordinate ministry of culture, has not yet been sent by parliament to the relevant government departments for implementation of the law.
Two weeks ago, after much haggling, the House of Representatives passed four bills to create a secondary ministry of culture. The main bone of contention was the status of the Department of Antiquities, which until now was subordinate to the Ministry of Transport, and under the new law it was to be transformed into a new Ministry of Culture.
According to the adopted law, the new junior ministry will begin work no later than July 1.
With regard to the transfer of the antiquities department and its staff to the new junior ministry, it was decided that the transfer would take place one year after the start of the ministry of culture.
But in the House Education Committee on Monday, MPs learned that one of the four bills has yet to be amended and sent to the relevant government departments so that the latter can begin to implement it.
The law is also not signed by the president and is not published in the government gazette when any law comes into effect.
The proofreading of the law and its transmission to the relevant government departments is commonplace. This task is carried out by the administrative services of the Parliament.
However, in this case, the administrative services of the parliament have not yet submitted one of the four bills to government departments, which raises suspicions of fraud.
“The Ministry of Education has informed the commission that the fourth bill has not yet been submitted,” commission chairman Pavlos Mylonas (Diko) later told reporters.
“We hope that there are serious reasons for this 15-day delay,” he said, “and we hope that it will reach the competent authorities and be made public today or tomorrow so that we can compare what was voted with what was what we will see at the end of the day.»
