DEPUTIES were stumped yesterday after hearing a list of perks given to employees of the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA).

Among other things, CyTA’s staff get bonuses for “initiative/responsibility”, driving a vehicle and motorcycle, dinners and transfers.

These came to dominate discussion at the House Finance Committee, whose item was CyTA’s budget for 2010 providing for expenditures of €425 million and revenues of €488 million.

Stathis Kittis, CyTA’s chairman of the board of directors, acknowledged that the benefits sounded excessive, but defended the practice saying that employees are not offered stock options as are their counterparts in private telecom companies.

Under parliamentary scrutiny, Kittis admitted also that the salaries offered in the semi-governmental organisation were three times higher than in the private sector, and pledged that CyTA’s leadership would take a second look at the benefits.

“What else are we going to be told…that they get bonuses for sitting on a chair or for coming to work?” mused European Party deputy Demetris Syllouris.

The perks heard yesterday were not that dissimilar to those in Greece, where it recently emerged that employees in certain governmental departments are entitled to a bonus for carrying files and a bonus for coming to work on time.

Speaking to newsmen later, AKEL MP Stavros Evagorou said the committee “appealed” to CyTA’s board of directors to examine ways of cutting back on redundant expenditures.

“We are truly astonished by the benefits which have been in place all these years,” he said.

The House Finance Committee noted also that many of the benefits at CyTA are tax-deductible. DISY deputy Christos Stylianides proposed that from now on all the benefits are spelled out in the employment contracts so that none slip under the radar.

CyTA also took heat for moving forward with plans to bid for one of two platforms for public digital television, against the advice of technocrats.

Deputies were unconvinced that the investment for the infrastructure, worth several millions of euros, would be profitable, especially given its poor financial track record with its existing CyTAvision platform.

In addition, CyTA’s entry into the digital television could serve to create an oligopoly given its dominant position in the telecoms market.