Auditor-general Andreas Papaconstantinou on Wednesday accused Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis of attempting to introduce “big brother” into the audit office through the government’s planned reforms to the body.

He was speaking to the House legal committee about plans regarding the creation of an audit board, which, should the bills be passed into law, write and publish reports regarding the activities of the auditor-general of the day.

As well as “introducing big brother into the audit office”, he said, it would also introduce “chaos” into both public debate and parliamentary committees.

He also accused Hartsiotis of “misleading” parliament in his address to the committee, with this comment related to Hartsiotis’ assertion that the creation of an audit board with multiple members would bring Cyprus into line with “the majority of member states” of the European Union.

He said that while it is the case that most EU member states have audit boards with multiple members, “the responsibilities presented are not related” to those set out in the government’s plans for the audit board.

Additionally, he expressed objections regarding plans for the audit board to submit recommendations for audits to be carried out, saying that the audit office at present has the capacity to write 60 reports per year and receives “over 300 recommendations”, and that as such, “it is unnecessary for the audit board to submit recommendations as well”.

He also asked how the audit board’s members “will be able to monitor the programme of preparing reports”, given that the programme itself is “constantly changing” and that the audit office at present “does not have enough staff”.

He did, however, applaud the government’s plan to make the auditor-general financially autonomous, saying that this is “a move in the right direction”, while also speaking positively of plans to introduce term limits.

Later in the session, his deputy Kyriacos Kyriacou said the bills are “not unconstitutional but not enforceable”, saying that given the fact that the audit board’s role will be purely advisory, “it will become clear that it has no role”.

Given the right to reply, Hartsiotis insisted that in its reports on the auditor-general’s conduct, the audit board will “not express its own opinions, not issue findings and not issue conclusions”.

“There will simply be an opportunity within a reasonable period of time to take stock of his work,” he said, before insisting that there will be “no duumvirate” in the audit office – meaning there will only be one person, and not two, at the top of it calling the shots.

Earlier, he had told the committee that the planned reform, including the creation of the audit board, is “part of broader reforms aimed at optimising state institutions based on modern needs and good practices”.

To this end, he said the proposals put forward in the bills are “based on a study” carried out by his ministry, which contains a “comparative overview with other EU member states, which follow the multi-member board model”.

After that study was completed, he said, his ministry had “initiated contacts” with former auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides, and then Papaconstantinou after his appointment, as well as Kyriacou, the institute of certified public accountants (Selk) and political parties between September and November last year.

He added that the bills which were drawn up were “processed by the legal service so that they do not conflict with the constitution and are in accordance with existing legislation”.

The bills, he said, are based on three “axes”, which he said are “the autonomy of the auditor-general, the term and qualifications of the auditor-general and his deputy, and the creation of the audit board”.

Delving into the details of the planned reforms, he explained that if the bills pass into law, the president of the day will appoint an auditor-general, who will then serve for a maximum of eight years or until they turn 68 years old, whichever comes sooner. No auditor-general will be able to serve for more than one eight-year term.

The salary and terms of termination, he said, will be equivalent to that of a supreme court justice.

He then added that should the bill pass, to be appointed as auditor-general, one must be a citizen of the Republic of Cyprus, must be a “capable person of the highest moral standard” and must have “recognised scientific training or experience in accounting, auditing, or the financial sector”.

Of the audit board, he said the three members will be appointed by cabinet after an advisory council will submit a list of five candidates, alongside an evaluation report of each of the five.

He added that audit board members will serve one non-renewable five-year term, but then, according to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), contradicted himself, saying that the audit board will in fact be made up of the finance ministry’s permanent secretary, the Cyprus bar association chairman and the Selk chairman of the day.

He was then quoted by CNA as saying that two of the three audit board members must have accounting qualifications and that the third must “have the legal qualifications to be able to be appointed as a judge”.