Salih Cansec, the chief of the north’s tender commission, appeared in court on Thursday after having been arrested late on Wednesday night on suspicion of taking bribes.

According to newspaper Yeniduzen, a representative of the Turkish Cypriot police told the court on Thursday that Cansec “gave information about tenders in advance to people who would participate in them”.

The representative made reference to a nursing home in the village of Kapouti, near Morphou, with Cansec having allegedly received a bribe of 510,000TL (€10,386) and £2,500 (€2,833) in exchange for the provision of information regarding a tender which was being held for renovations there.

One mobile phone was taken from his house during a search, while a search of the home of his assistant, who was also arrested, turned up two USB sticks, three laptops, and a mobile phone.

It was alleged in court that his assistant had prepared a file regarding a tender which was put out for cleaning services at the north’s civil defence building, and sent it to a company which was due to participate in the tender process.

In exchange for this, the assistant allegedly received a bribe of 50,000TL (€1,018) and Cansec allegedly received a bribe of 100,000TL (€2,037).

Both were remanded in custody for a single day and are expected to appear in court again on Friday.