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The numbers were already difficult to explain.
One prison officer was absent for 205 days in 2023 and another 202 days the following year. Across those two years, the officer submitted 111 medical certificates.
Now the matter has moved beyond an audit office report and into a criminal investigation.
Police are examining whether two doctors and eight prison officers may have been involved in issuing or using questionable sick-leave certificates. No one has been convicted, and the investigation will have to establish whether any criminal offense was committed.
The case stems from an Audit Office review of sick leave at the Central Prisons between 2022 and 2024.
Auditors found that 171 employees had exceeded the 42-day sick-leave limit during at least one of those three years. Forty-four exceeded it in two consecutive years, while 34 did so in all three.
The investigation is focusing on eight officers who were absent for between 43 and 229 days a year and received numerous certificates from the same general practitioner and orthopaedic surgeon.
In the case of the officer who submitted 111 certificates, 105 reportedly came from those two doctors.
Auditors then compared the certificates with appointments recorded in Gesy and found gaps.
Another officer reportedly submitted 54 certificates, but only six visits appeared in Gesy. Just three matched the dates and medical conditions listed on the certificates. In some cases, the recorded appointment appeared to take place after the sick note had already been issued.
The Cyprus Medical Association has urged people not to jump to conclusions before the investigation is completed. It said it would consider disciplinary action if the allegations against any doctors were proven.
That caution is important. Employees can genuinely become ill, sometimes for long periods, and taking many days of sick leave is not proof of fraud.
But the scale of the absences raises questions about who was checking the certificates and whether the existing system was working at all.
Separate figures for the first seven months of 2026 showed that 54 prison employees who had each taken at least 40 days off accumulated a combined 5,548 sick days. That figure does not include shorter absences.
When prison officers are away, someone else has to cover their shifts. That can mean overtime, exhausted staff, and fewer people available inside an already difficult workplace.
And, of course, someone has to pay for it.
The taxpayer pays the salaries, the overtime, and the cost of keeping the prison running. That is why this is not simply an internal dispute between prison management, doctors, and employees.
Genuine sick leave must be protected. But if certificates were issued without proper examinations or used to take leave that was not justified, the public deserves to know how it happened and why no one stopped it sooner.
