Transport Minister announces members of Investigative Committee on vehicle recalls

Minister of Transport, Communications and Works Alexis Vafeades has announced the members of the Investigative Committee established to look into issues created by vehicle recalls.

In statements at the House of Representatives, the Transport Minister said that Costas Pampallis, a former Supreme Court Judge, is appointed as Chairman of the Committee, while the Assistant Auditor General, Kyriakos Kyriakou, and the President of the Nicosia Bar Association, Stefanos Skordis, are appointed as members of the Committee. They will be able to meet as soon as Pampallis returns from abroad, Vafeades added.

Asked about the Committee’s terms of reference, the Minister said that they will be announced at the first meeting and cover the period 2004-2025, their purpose and aim being to investigate everything that has happened until today, why we have ended up with such a large number of vehicles without European type approval and why we have no chain of information for the owners of these vehicles regarding recalls.

"The big problem we have today is that tens of thousands of vehicles have accumulated, for which their owners do not know whether they have a recall or not and that is why the time we have given for recalls is required," the Minister said, noting that this is a situation for which the Cabinet has requested information so that corrective measures can be taken.

On a remark that since 2019 the EU has sent 57 warnings and asked if there is any responsibility on the Road Transport Department Director and former Transport Ministers, Vafeades said that the information through RAPEX is important as far as products are concerned, while as far as vehicle issues are concerned, the responsibility lies with the manufacturer, which is passed on to the distributors, who in turn have the responsibility to inform the owners.

By law the responsibility lies with the manufacturer, and the responsibility to monitor that this activity is being implemented, i.e. that the distributor is communicating with the owner, lies with the local authority, namely the Department of Road Transport, he said.

The terms of reference include investigating whether distributors, importers and the supervisory authority have fulfilled their obligations in accordance with what is required by law, Vafeades added.

Responding to another question, the Minister said that 2004 was Cyprus' first year in the EU, during which time vehicles were divided into vehicles with European type approval and vehicles without European type approval.

"That is why we believe that from the day the problem has been created we need to know why so many cars are imported without European type approval, under which regulations, under which legislation, whether this is done correctly or incorrectly, because at the end of the day we have ended up in a situation in which owners do not know if their vehicles have been recalled precisely because the chain of information has been broken," he said.

Asked about an allegation by MP, Costas Costa, that companies were receiving money which they were not using to replace faulty parts, and whether this would be part of the investigation, Vafeades replied in the negative, saying this was not included in the investigation. He added, however, that if this was the case, it would be a criminal offence and called on the MP to hand over to police any information he may have, as the allegations were too serious.

(Source: CNA)