Newsroom
Famagusta officials want the green light to publicly name people and companies who owe large, long-overdue debts to the local authority, a move they say is needed to pressure chronic non-payers.
Yannis Karousos, president of the Famagusta District Organization, said he’s formally seeking an opinion from the Office of the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection. If approved, the authority would publish the names of major debtors who haven’t paid their sewage or water bills for more than two years.
Karousos said the unpaid amounts have piled up to more than €14 million across the district’s three sewage boards. “Most of these debts belong to companies, not households,” he noted, adding that the backlog has reached an unsustainable level.
If the privacy commissioner gives the go-ahead, the organization plans to release an updated list every year. Officials will later decide what the minimum debt threshold will be before a name is published.
The district is also exploring a tougher measure: linking unpaid bills to the issuing of planning and building permits. In practice, that would mean companies, and possibly individuals, applying for a new development permit would first have to settle any outstanding amounts they owe.
Karousos said the goal isn’t to punish ordinary residents but to push major debtors to finally pay up. “We need tools that work,” he said. “And transparency is one of them.”
