Month: April 2013

The problem of a small country

Cyprus Mail reports:

FORMER supreme court judge Panayiotis Kallis has resigned from the committee of inquiry tasked with probing the circumstances which led the economy and banking sector to the brink of collapse.

In a letter to the President and the justice minister, Kallis said he felt obliged to step down citing a possible conflict of interest with his sons’ law practice.

In the letter, Kallis explained that he could not in good conscience continue his work as his sons’ law firm has taken on clients challenging the ‘haircut’ on deposits at Laiki and Bank of Cyprus.

That in itself did not constitute a conflict of interest, Kallis explained. However, he subsequently discovered (on Monday) that some of his sons’ clients plan to argue in court that the haircut and the winding down of Laiki are the result of inadequate supervision/negligence by regulatory authorities such as the Central Bank and the lack of corrective fiscal measures on the part of the state.

I certainly do appreciate the openness in such a sensitive issue.  But I also wonder if we have enough people in this country to staff such a committee.  I mean, it should consist of people who are competent enough to understand and investigate the problem.  Yet, on the other hand, we live in a small country, where everybody is connected to everybody, and where competent people are scarce resource.  Is it possible to find enough competent people who aren’t somehow in conflict of interest in regards to the problem that has affected the whole country?