“Today’s testimony of the former head of his Direct Aids Directorate OKAYParaskevi Tycheropoulou, to the Parliament’s Investigative Committee, is a crucial testimony about the corruption that prevailed inside OPEKEPE as well as the climate of intimidation that was dominant” PASOK sources report and continue: “Ms. Tycheropoulou described in detail the existence of a “closed pressure group” that used intimidation and psychological violence on workers who reacted to opaque practices. He spoke specifically about threats against his life received by the OPEKEPE employee in Crete G. Kalliouris, who was the first to identify the irregularities and inaccuracies in the controls, as well as even with specific examples of how successive administrations of the Organization tried to prevent it from doing its job. He mentioned by name the notorious “Frape” G. Xylouris, as one of the central figures in the intimidation regime, stressing that he had reached the point of calling her home phone and talking to her children.”

According to the official opposition party sources, “Mrs Tycheropoulou presented to the Commission detailed examples from controls where producers from Crete declared pastures on various islands of the country without having title deeds”. As they state: “The witness described a powerful system built around persons from the previous administrations, Mr. Mela, Mr. Papa (current ND MP), Mr. Babasidis and Mr. Salata, who obstructed any control effort, altered results, interfered with payment procedures and took revenge on those employees who tried to do their job properly with continuous movements. Mrs. Tycheropoulou comparatively mentioned that the Papa administration asked her to hand over all the files with the checks she had done and they showed irregularities and inaccuracies in the statements. Her files were requested as soon as the new president took office. In fact, everything he had checked was given for re-checking and many of the checks had radically changed content. Mrs. Tycheropoulou named Mrs. Reppa as the one who changed the findings of the audits and gave cases for review in order to change the results while she mentioned that the head of the accounting office, Mr. Tasoulis requested her transfer to another department where she would not have any access to the audits. Furthermore, he made a serious revelation concerning the period of the Babasidis administration: during the Babasidis administration there were intense pressures for the release of VAT numbers concerning the breeder Xylouris. Mrs. Tycheropoulou also described threats, surveillance and attempts to exterminate her from the Babasidis administration, while she spoke of the openly hostile attitude of the administration when she tried to submit evidence to the Court of Audit. Mr. Babasidis, according to what Mrs. Tycheropoulou testified, showed particular dissatisfaction with her designation as a collaborator of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. In fact, he did not hesitate to open her closet in the presence of a bailiff, who, however, as he wrote in his report, found it already open, that is, violated. Based on what was found there, disciplinary proceedings were brought against her.”

Its sources PASOK they also note: “Regarding the 4 TINs presented by Mrs. Kourmetza and claimed to have been illegally paid by Tycheropoulou-Theodoropoulos and Simandrakos, 3 of the 4 were not included in the seized ones, as Mrs. Tycheropoulou testified, while the 4th TIN belonged to Vasilios Xylouris, the son of Frape, for which she had inform his supervisor by note accounting that it is in the reserved in order not to be paid and yet it was paid”. “Of particular importance was her reference to the error in the payment of 52 million euros, an error that, as she underlined, could have been detected by the accounting department and its supervisor, Mr. Tasoulis, who, however, was never checked, unlike herself, who faced disciplinary proceedings because of this payment. In fact, the administration was quick to assign responsibility to the Agency by covering up the technical consultant who made the mistake. Mrs. Tycheropoulou spoke about the reaction inside and outside the Organization to the attempt to transfer payments through gov.gr, while she also spoke about the case of the reserved 2021 VAT IDs which, according to her, were violated with payments to specific persons, among them Vassilis Xylouris, without ever being given adequate explanations” PASOK sources say and add: “At the end of her testimony she pointed out that the entire political leadership was aware of what was happening in OPEKEPE, and the former ministers L. Avgenakis and G. Georgantas knew what was happening in the Organization, but only the latter showed a substantial interest in its consolidation. Mrs. Tycheropoulou revealed that after Mr. Avgenakis took over, Mr. Xylouris started coming more and more often to OPEKEPE, showing that he plays a central role within the organization. The witness finally revealed that Minister Tsiaras refused to sign her referral to the Prosecutor’s Office, while urging her to “go abroad”, an element that raises questions about the real political intentions to cover up or silence the facts”.