By Vangelis Dourakis

Incredible ‘buckwheat’ with community subsidies Millions of euros had set up a “monkey” breeders in a case that strongly gives rise to odor of rot and corruption. The sudden raid on the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in the offices of the Payment and Control of Community Aid and Guarantee Aid (OPECEPE) has brought to light the details of a scandal of megatons that puts on the “frame” and government officials and political supervisors.

It is noteworthy that the President of the Organization Nikos Salatas has been “alleged” with summary procedures from his position, following a announcement by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office that spoke of “lack of sincere cooperation” during the audits. The same announcement said that the fraud that was revealed “may have been systematically organized with the participation of members of the Board of Directors and OPECEPE officials”!

The timing of ‘sinners’ subsidies

The timing of the case that became a major scandal is as follows: in 2017 a series of changes to the EU law, which expanded the definition of pastures including bushy areas and forest areas, gave the “eagle” the opportunity to act for the new situation.

The eligible area for agricultural activities in Greece almost doubled, after the changes, thus paving the way for abuse.

One could even declare pastures even far from the site of its facilities, for example, islanders to declare pastures in mainland Greece.

Soon, therefore, applications for subsidies began to be submitted by people who lived hundreds of kilometers away from land or lease.

It is indicative that in 2019, two individuals from Rethymnon, Crete, applied for a land lease subsidy to Jia for use as a pasture.

Their application included leasing contracts which recognized two other residents of Rethymnon as owners. They received about 73,000 euros from EU funds.

The following year, two other Rethymnon producers hired the same area in Jia and the contracts submitted to OPEKEPE, the area appeared to have new owners.

“The alleged alternating owners of the same pieces of land in the Cyclades were changing the land as shirts,” said OPEKEPE President Gregory Varra. “There is serious evidence of complicity.”

In another case, a man from Crete claimed that he owns a pasture in Grammos, northwestern Greece. The person, a former subcontractor of the Ministry of Agriculture, was accused with members of his family of receiving thousands of euros after claiming he had rented 450 acres in a mountainous area near the Albanian border.

Auditors in 2020 found that a farmer from Crete appeared to lease parcels of a total of nine employees in Gaidouronisi. The leases appeared to have been signed all the same day, while the total amount of aid received by the alleged producers amounted to about 250,000 euros.

But the even more impressive element – in this case – emerged the following year: although the leasing of the land signed in 2020 were lasting until 2027, however, these employees in 2021 appeared to rent areas in other areas of Greece and not in Gaidou.

In other words it was found that allegedly breeders They rented pastures for a year and the following year they gave up and went to other islands to hire pastures.

There were even 34 cases where applicants received funds for land outside Greece, including one who requested a plot in neighboring Northern Macedonia, which does not even belong to the EU!

Applicants did not need to submit ownership documents, but just a number in a form.

The Cretan lobby and the inner information

The case, which may concern illegal payments of up to € 45 million a year, is one of the largest cases of rural fraud in recent years in the European Union.

The vast majority of fake statements were made by Cretewhich received two -thirds of Greece’s total agricultural subsidies from the EU in 2020, according to OPEKEPE data.

According to internal audit documents, the same pastures were declared by different “owners” each year, but without duplicates, indicating that someone with overall access to the files was coordinated by the system.

In order for this method to work as it worked – it is deserved that – it was necessary to have a person within the organization with “internal information” that was able to know the maps and inform what areas were available, as to ensure that there will be no overlaps.

Access to these data had OPECEPE executives and technical companies working with the organization.

Thus, it seems logical that the European Public Prosecutor’s Investigations are not only focused on those who have falsely declared some areas to claim illegal subsidies, but also on possible involvement of government officials, in particular executives of the Payment Agency and Audit of Community Aid and Guarantees.

The attitude of political bosses

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is investigating the case from 2021 and has already brought 70 cases before the Greek justice.

Questions, however, are not excluded from the course and the attitude of the political leaderships all this time, towards those who attempted to highlight the aspects of this huge scandal.

It is indicative that OPECEPE has changed six times president in the last five yearsbetween them and the Gregory Varrawhich in 2020 was the one who informed the prosecutors of illegal subsidies, which were brought to be given by OPECEPE to producers from 2017 – 2020.

At that time, a 3,480 VAT list had been formed that entered controls and “committed”.

Professor Varra’s reports to the Public Prosecutor’s Office were based on the checks made by the OPEKEPE Internal Audit Division. Friday Tyherropoulou.

Mrs Tyheropoulos allegedly informed Mr Varra on the irregularities he had found in OPECEPE’s aid.

Beyond that, however, things got a … rather unexpected turn: After just a year, from his position, Professor Varra was removed from the post of OPECEPE President.

And if Mr Varras was “karatoma”, Mrs Thanropoulou saw some of OPEKEPE’s subsequent administrations to move three times disciplinary procedures against her, and a lawsuit has been filed for embezzlement!

And despite the fact that her methodology revealed an extensive network, which, through false declarations of ownership, received EU illegally subsidies, she was dismissed by the position of the Head of the Internal Audit Directorate, intermitting in DIAGNOSIS as “inadequate”, was “inadequate”.

At the same time, the administration has so far initiated three disciplinary procedures against it and a lawsuit.
Even more striking is that at the same time, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office for facilitating its investigations has requested that it be removed at the office of the executive European prosecutors, but which remains “blocked” in Greece.

What will happen with subsidies granted to ‘monkey’ farmers

In 2024, the Commission imposed a fine of EUR 281 million on OPECEPE for aid given in the financial years 2020, 2021 and 2022.

More specifically, based on the decision of the AGRI Directorate General (DG AGRI), the offenses relate to the financial years 2020, 2021 and 2022, ie the IACs applications for the years 2019,2020 and 2021 of which EUR 260,361 million for aid and EUR 22,855 million for multiple compliance.

Brussels found that in 2020 there was an unnatural increase in applications in our country by the National Rights of Rights in the region of animals without animals.

In 2022 the Greek authorities carried out extensive checks and commitments to the populations of beneficiaries who applied for animal -free grazing rights.

The Commission has warned that, if there are no drastic corrective measures, Greece is in danger of losing the management of Community subsidies in the agricultural sector.

Minister of Rural Development Costas Tsiaras put OPEKEPE under stricter surveillance.

He made it clear that the money distributed illegally and amounts to hundreds of thousands of euros will be returned. And indeed those who received illegal funds under the legislation and logic will need to return them.

However, farmers have never been asked to return to Community funds so far, but the offenses have been paid by the state budget.

A striking example is the famous “Hatzigaki package”, totaling 500 million euros, given to farmers for allegedly disasters in the 2009 election crops.

Seven years later and after hundreds of meetings and e-mails exchanged with the Community bodies in February 2016 by decision of the EU Court of Justice. The Greek State was obliged to recover € 425 million from farmers, which it had granted for the consequences of crops due to adverse weather conditions. These funds were returned by the state budget.

What will happen to OPECEPE and the funds to pay

Whatever the case, OPECEPE’s information and audit system, which manages about € 3 billion annually in European funds on behalf of 680,000 farmers and breeders, proved to be vulnerable … to “sinful”.

In July, therefore, an EU control is expected. and the decision to maintain or not the relevant certification available.

At the same time, a rate of correction has been proposed at least 10%, horizontally on the rural funds received by Greece, an amount approaching EUR 45 million.

If the certification is lifted, the organization will not have the right to manage Community funds, so payments will be stopped to farmers

EU sources say that another certified organization should be found, but this cannot be done immediately. The certification process is long -term – in the case of OPEKEPE for years – and in the meantime the aid to farmers will not be paid.

Thus, a new “formula” is being sought so as not to arise issues with payments to the agricultural world: Government Vice President Kostis Hatzidakis in this context revealed that “OPEKEPE’s work is being considered seriously, AADE”. And he stressed that, “AADE is a principle, whose objectivity and efficiency has not been disputed and has been in the past, during the crowning period as a principle of payments.”

Concerning the aid to be paid in the near future, Rural Development Minister Costas Tsiaras said that “payments will be made normally. This is the assurance we have from the OPECEPE service. By the end of May, the other linked aid will be paid and by 30/6 the remaining obligations arising from the single aid application of 2024. ”