Nicosia, Cyprus. Cyprus’ audit office said on Wednesday that the government is losing money because some pleasure boat dock operators have not paid annual management fees in full upon receiving planning permission. The report reviewed six docks and found that fees had either not been fully paid or had not been paid at all.
Audit findings
The audit office examined six pleasure boat docks for which planning permission was granted between June 2018 and January 2019. The docks were located in Alaminos in the Larnaca district, Peyia in the Paphos district, at the mouth of the Ha Potami river near Kouklia in the Paphos district, near Pachyammos beach in Kato Paphos, and two in Softades in the Larnaca district.
The report said annual management fees range between €75,000 and €262,000.
Payment status of operators
According to the report, the operators of the Alaminos dock paid the fees in full between 2018 and 2020 but have not done so since. The operators of the docks in Peyia and Ha Potami, as well as one of the Softades docks, have paid nothing.
The operators of the Pachyammos dock and the other Softades dock have paid the required fees. The Pachyammos dock operator paid backdated fees in October last year, while the other Softades dock operator paid an advance lump sum in December 2020.
Legal opinion and proposed amendment
The report said some operators argued that paying annual management fees upon receipt of planning permission, rather than when the dock enters service, is “particularly burdensome”.
In 2019, the finance ministry requested an opinion from the legal service, which found in 2021 that the government can only begin demanding fees “after the issuance of all the required individual licences”.
The legal service also called on the government to “comply with the principles of good faith and proportionality” to ensure that it “does not act in a contradictory manner or in bad faith”.
A committee created to evaluate the issue later proposed amending the bill on the operation of pleasure boat docks to establish a different, reduced interim fee for dock operators.