“Strictly delimited institutionally and in full knowledge of OPEKEPE was the work of “GAIA Enterprise”. In the contract that was signed in 2014 and lasted until 2021, the company was certified as a Coordinating body of the KYD, without having a financial object with the Organization”.

This was supported by the CEO, from September 2024, of the company “GAIA Enterprises”, Anestis Tripitsidis, in his testimony to the Investigative Committee, which is investigating the OPEKEPE case.

“The contract provided for the assurance of the level of quality and security of the applications, and the company checked the error codes provided to us by OPEKEPE, being responsible for the debugging process.

It had a contractual relationship as a coordinating body, with all the certified KYD. He was conducting checks based on specific wrong codes, given by OPEKEPE”, he said.

As he pointed out, “GAIA Enterprise” had no authority or responsibility to examine the legality of the content of the documents.”

“The KYD were responsible for the content and OPEKEPE was obliged to check the legality of the applications.

GAIA was not responsible for legality checks. The control carried out by the company was typical and not of any substance until 2021.

When the company took over the project, it was about 110 KYD and when our contract ended it was over 500 KYD. Many problems we identified in 2014 are still present today. Each time, in our annual reports to OPEKEPE, we mentioned them by making specific proposals.

GAIA submitted a proposal for mandatory electronic invoicing in 2014,” he said.

When PASOK’s rapporteur, Milenas Apostolaki, asked if GAIA had identified the problem with the fictitious statements about animals, she replied that the company “offered services, it did not have access to the veterinary service that was responsible”.

“OPEKEPE should have told us. We couldn’t control it. Our role was to clean up the statements so that the payments were made correctly. From then on, OPEKEPE was responsible”, he noted.

In another question of Mrs. Apostolakis, she stated that “the company had no relationship with OPEKEPE, nor access to the software because it is only a project manager”.

When asked by SYRIZA’s rapporteur, Vassilis Kokkalis, about the problem of pastures, the witness said that “since 2015 the company had pointed out in its annual report that this crude artificial solution should not continue in the coming years”.

“Since 2014, GAIA has been reporting on the problem of very large pasture changes and we have highlighted the issue of the artificial solution in our annual reports. And it was OPEKEPE’s responsibility to solve the problem with the applications”, he noted.

In the remark of Mr. Kokkalis, regarding the problematic operation of some KYDs, the witness noted that GAIA had informed OPEKEPE, while he emphasized that “the former president of OPEKEPE, Grigoris Varras, recommended the decertification of some KYDs because they did not comply with the way of operation of “GAIA Enterprises”, as the Coordinating Body of KYDs”.

As he said, “the then Minister of Rural Development, Makis Voridis, accepted the suggestion of Mr. Varras and these KYD lost their certification, while they irrevocably lost the appeal they had made to the CoE against his decision”.

“Many KYD did their work seriously. I certainly don’t think they all worked properly because we wouldn’t be here today,” he noted.

Furthermore, Mr. Tripitsidis rejected all the objections raised by MPs, both from the governing majority and from the Opposition, as to whether it is ethical for three companies linked to each other with a large share of shares to cooperate with OPEKEPE, objecting that “it is a partnership agreement between three arms with a different object and is an innovation until today”.

“Given the involvement of the three companies and their interconnection with OPEKEPE, I would say that it is the definition of entanglement”, said the ND rapporteur, Makarios Lazaridis, with the witness expressing his objection, arguing that the two companies had different scope of work.

“It may be legal, but is it ethical, to have the same persons in all three companies that simultaneously had relations with OPEKEPE?”, Mr. Lazaridis noted.

Finally, in response to a question from KKE rapporteur Nikos Karathanasopoulos, the witness said that “in our country, subsidies from community funds will be reduced by 22% and no one is concerned”.