Audit office says Osypa has yet to acquire 40 contractually required buses
The audit office said Osypa had bought 32 of 72 new buses required under its contract, while penalties had risen to more than €4.5 million.
Paphos, Cyprus. The audit office said on Monday that the concessionaire operating Paphos public transport company Osypa had acquired only 32 of the 72 new buses it was contractually required to add to its fleet by February. Financial penalties imposed over the failure had reached €4,512,967.12 by July, according to the transport ministry.
Contract requirements
The audit office said the concessionaire had committed to adding 72 new buses to its fleet by the end of a one-year transitional period which began in 2024. It said the remaining 40 buses had not been purchased despite the financial penalties.
The contract was signed on November 30, 2022, and required 80 operational buses by this year. Eight buses were to be transferred from the previous Paphos district public transport contract: three first put into service in 2010 and five first put into service in 2015. The remaining buses were to be new.
During the tender process, the concessionaire provided a certificate from a bus manufacturer confirming its ability to deliver the ordered vehicles within the required timeframe, the audit office said.
Delays and penalties
The initial transitional period was due to end on November 30, 2023, but was extended until February 7, 2024. Orders for 82 buses were placed in January and February 2023.
By February 7, 2024, 20 new buses had entered service. When the audit office examined the matter in February this year, the number had increased to 32.
The audit office said that even if the transport ministry had acted within the contractual and legal framework and used the means available to it, an essential contractual term had still not been implemented two and a half years later.
It said the failure to acquire the buses raised questions over whether the original contract design had given the transport ministry sufficient and effective tools to enforce compliance.
Current fleet
In the absence of the newly purchased buses, the concessionaire is operating services with rented buses and existing older vehicles, the audit office said.
Daily penalties imposed on the concessionaire had reached €2,373,693.60 by February. In a letter issued by the transport ministry in July, the amount was said to have nearly doubled to €4,512,967.12 and was increasing by about €150,000 per month.
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