By Yannis Anifantis

Evangelos Simandrakos defended the policy he implemented for a year (2022 – 2023) in OPEKEPE, claiming that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office was investigating his own period and considered that “everything was done with the best practices”.

The former president of OPEKEPE, who was at the heart of the case of agricultural subsidies due to his letter to the red VAT, argued that then Minister of Rural Development, Lefteris Avgenakis, publicly depreciated him in order to resign.

“I learned that the minister is annoyed with the payment made. I was not given the opportunity to explain. (…) He chose this method of depreciating a person’s character and professional status to force him to leave, “he said.

Mr Simandrakos also made a special reference to the 73 -year -old from Kozani, whose VAT was among the blocked, as he appeared to have received 800,000 euros illegally from OPEKEPE, claiming that he was wrongly dealt with and that his objection was properly accepted by the Agency. “For SP The 73 -year -old has been a lot of talk. It was wrongly reported that it has no land. It had 4,000 acres. The problem with this arose if I remember in 2016-18 because then the information system could receive a specific number of rentals (leasing of land as pastures). This particular had about 1,000 and something leases and could not be made a fine. He went to the Audit Committee but the Committee instead preferred to send the dossier to the Central Office resulting in the suffering of the beneficiary. The beneficiaries appealed to the European Commission, “he said, defending the former director of the Organization, Paraskevi Thanropoulou, who received complaints from the two previous presidents of the organization.

Referring to the pressures he received for the blocked VAT ID, he stressed: “I was mentioned by Mr. Stratakos (then the Secretary General of the Ministry of Rural Development) that we must do something with the committed VAT.” He even argued that he was asked by phone to pay George Xylouris (“Fraps”). “Stratakos asked me many times to pay Xylouris. He told me that “George must be paid”, “he said, while arguing that Xylouris” was a frequent visitor to the Ministry of Rural Development and OPEKEPE and this is evident from the book of visitors “.

SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR PAIN

Mr Simandrakos also made incredible complaints, including a statement of lentil cultivation in downtown Athens, the painter area and leasing shepherds with a half amount of one euro. At the same time he talked about too many virtual inheritance earnings. He added that when he tried to check one, he found that the notary he said was accepted twenty years before the contract.