Opposition MPs on Monday kept up the pressure on the government over the LNG import debacle, calling on authorities to commence investigations into the matter.

They seemed prompted by remarks from auditor-general Andreas Papaconstantinou, in parliament to discuss his agency’s budget for fiscal year 2026.

Papaconstantinou revealed that the Audit Office has written to the energy minister requesting “the new timetables so we can monitor the project, as it has gone completely askew, in terms of both the timetable and the cost”.

He added: “It was taken for granted that today we have a project that is not working, while a great deal of money keeps going out the door.

“It worries us.”

He said when it comes to public tenders, the Audit Office even checks the prices of items like pens.

“But when it comes to natural gas, no one knows how the cost will turn out.”

Papaconstantinou also told MPs that the Audit Office has “certain other thoughts” on the matter, but now was not the time to announce them.

Chiming in, Akel MP Irini Charalambides again referred to the €67 million that Cyprus has been asked to return to the European Commission.

In September it emerged that Brussels had demanded that Cyprus refund grants worth €67.2 million in connection with the LNG terminal at Vasiliko. Cypriot authorities have a deadline by November 6 to do so.

This has to do to with a number of irregularities flagged by the European Commission relating to the circumstances in which the contract for the LNG project was awarded to a Chinese-led consortium in December 2019. The project is now left half-completed after the contractor walked out.

The government insists the project can be finished. At the moment, it’s waiting for its consultants Technip to hand over a ‘gap analysis’ describing what works are pending and their cost.

“No one knows where this is going, it’s still a live project and millions of euro are getting spent,” Charalambides said.

“Does the attorney-general’s office ever intend to launch investigations, so we can we see how the tender was awarded?”

The MP said that, unlike the Great Sea Interconnector – where local authorities cannot start investigations until European authorities wrap up their own – in the case of the LNG affair the government has no such excuse.

“There are ministers who need to give depositions to police, there are individuals in the previous government… and meetings took place at the presidential palace where people expressed their views.”

Elsewhere during the session of the House finance committee, the auditor-general said his agency would start spot checks at various governmental services during the month of November.

During the unannounced visits, Audit Office functionaries would ask members of the public questions about the quality of service they receive.

The questionnaire findings would be collated, and the results published sometime in January.

The results would be used to “assist” the government on ways to improve the public’s experience with governmental services.