The Limassol District Local Government Organization (EOA) is in the process of organizing its fight on the difficulties in the areas of licensing and Limassol Water Board, where it encountered "grey areas" when taking over the organisation. The EOA president, Mr. Yannis Tsouloftas, assured “Entrepreneurial Limassol” that the management team of the organisation has prepared an action plan and schedule, to solve the specific problems, but it will take more time than initially estimated.
Mr. Tsouloftas pointed out that the EOA has been commissioned with 8,000 pending applications, the majority of which are overdue, and their processing is not a simple matter. In addition, he referred to new applications submitted online via the Hippodamus system, which is experiencing serious operational problems. He said that 5,500 low-risk cases have been assessed and can be handled by employees as contractors, expressing confidence that 1,000 licences per month will soon be issued, normalising the situation.
The Director of Licensing at the Limassol EOA, Mr. Heracles Achniotis, said there were practical difficulties with moving, setting up in new offices and concentrating the officers from different licensing authorities. However, he noted that a strong team has gradually begun to be formed, which has not yet reached its full potential. "This will happen by the end of the year, and the difference will be noticeable," he said.
He pointed out that the choice of a single licensing authority is the right one, as it will eliminate the fragmented approaches that existed with the various licensing authorities. As well as that, a single authority would be able to exercise control more efficiently and quickly. With regard to the processing of applications by contractors, the Director of Licensing informed us that the process is at an advanced stage. He noted that there is interest from a sufficient number of EOA officers and that the number of outsourced contractors will be small-scaled, as the "heavy artillery" will come from within the organisation. He stressed that this arrangement would give a boost to licensing, and expressed confidence that the target set by the EOA President would be achieved. He added that the Board is expected to give the go-ahead soon for the start of the contracting process and that the organisation is ready to proceed.
Regarding the problems in the Limassol Water Board and the slow response to breakdowns, the president, Mr. Yannis Tsouloftas, identified it on the one hand to the problematic network of the new areas received by EOA and on the other hand to the extensive area and the problematic situation of the Municipality of Kourion, where 60% of the breakdowns occurred. He said that the crews on stand by will be immediately increased, while measures will be taken to speed up the process of restoring the damages.
The General Director of the EOA, Mr Socrates Metaxas, said that in order to deal with the situation immediately, private contractors have been assigned to assist in repairing the damages, as the EOA's budgets have not yet been approved. He added that with the approval of the budgets, expected in October or November, several positions for engineers and labourers will be proclaimed to increase the number of staff handling these issues.
He added that in the first two months of operation of the EOA, there were 1,500 network failures, including 450 in the area of the Limassol Water Board (SYL), 900 in Kourion and 150 in Amathunta. About 30% of the breakdowns were recorded in the area of SYL, 60% in Kourion and 10% in Amathunta. According to Mr. Socrates Metaxas, there was a pleasant and an unpleasant surprise: in Amathunta the condition of the network is not as bad as expected, while in the Municipality of Kourion and especially in the areas of Ypsonas and Episkopi, the situation is very bad.
He stressed that the EOA has slowly started to control the situation, but it has not yet reached a point where it can respond to any failure within a few hours. He expressed the hope that by October they will have reached this level, as a downward trend is being recorded and the number of faults remaining to be repaired is decreasing.
