The ongoing investigation by the Organization for Payment and Audit of Community Aid and Guarantee Aid (OPECEPE) is continuing intensively in the presence of prosecutors and police authorities in the context of the competence of the Special Task Force set up to clarify cases of illegal aid.
The prosecutors’ visit to the offices of the Payment Organization today is part of a coordinated collection of data, following the announcements of the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis to create the special group, which will investigate those who received illegal subsidies.
According to information from the Ministry of Environment and Physical Public Prosecutors, the prosecutors have focused on raising data on farmers who have received the highest aid in order to examine whether they meet the conditions or are involved in virtual statements and irregularities.
The procedure is characterized by full cooperation of all stakeholders, and – as competent sources point out – the checks will continue until all those who have received illegally community aid is found.
The intention of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, as made by the Minister responsible yesterday, Costas Tsiaras, is to recover the money paid with irregular certificates within the next two months.
Today, in an interview with Parapolitika, he confirmed that “the presence of the Financial Police is about pumping data to be able to do their job properly”, adding that “everything will come to light.”
It is also recalled that in the context of reinforcing the OPEKEPE controls and management competence, the recruitment of100 new employees is completed, with the aim of accelerating procedures and strengthening the control mechanism.
Earlier, OPEKEPE Vice President George Zalidis, referring to the presence of the Financial Police in the Organization, said – among other things – that the administration has a good cooperation with it. “There is an excellent climate of cooperation. Data is recovered with data for payments. The data required for research is available to the authorities. Our goal is to complete transparency and to recover OPECEPE’s credibility, for the benefit of the farmers, “he said.
“No payment will be made without exhaustive control,” Mr Tsiaras said, speaking about the cases of organic beekeeping and livestock farming, where the numbers appear “inflated”. For example, as he pointed out, there was a huge deviation between available and resources. “The original budget was 8 million euros. We budgeted 18 million and it was possible to reach all 36. But the amount requested through applications reached 166 million euros. They cannot be accepted, “he said.
Finally, with regard to the refund of the amounts paid, Mr Tsiaras made it clear that the relevant legislation for the recovery procedure will be implemented.