“The political will of both myself and the government is clear – all this OPEKEPE corruption must end” stated Kostas Tsiaras, speaking on Friday (8/8) on Parapolitika 90.1, during the “Summer Together” show with journalist Penny Avramidis.
The Minister of Agricultural Development and Food added: “Those who illegally received money must return it, and we will not allow such practices and behaviors toward OPEKEPE and European resources to be repeated under any circumstances.”
Tsiaras on Parapolitika 90.1: “Government committed to ending OPEKEPE corruption”
Among other things, he emphasized regarding Samaras’ daughter’s loss: “We are all shocked by the loss of a young person, Mr. Samaras’ daughter. It is truly shocking, something that surpasses us all. In such events, there are no human words that can ease the pain, especially of parents who may lose their children. It’s unthinkable, it’s an upheaval of nature, it’s beyond logic. It has shocked us all!”
Referring to OPEKEPE: “The Economic Police had to obtain certain evidence to conduct their own investigation. OPEKEPE’s transition to AADE is a process being done methodically, step by step, with great care. On one hand, we must maintain OPEKEPE’s basic operational philosophy – it’s an organization that distributes European community resources. On the other hand, we must enter an era of absolute transparency and justice regarding the management of these resources. It’s a transitional period that requires many different functions of care at different levels, but much more the vigilance we must show in every process concerning OPEKEPE’s operation.”
He added: “Through inspections we’ve conducted, we found over 30,000 producer tax numbers – when we talk about organic schemes – with more than 49,000 fake certificates entered.”
Regarding inspections for organic farming, livestock, and beekeeping, Kostas Tsiaras said: “Thousands are leaving the program. It’s a huge number of beneficiaries who don’t want to participate in the program in view of the inspections. Those being inspected ‘disappear’ the day after the inspection is supposed to take place – they can’t be found anywhere.”
He continued saying: “The political will is clear – mine, the ministry’s, and the entire government’s – all this OPEKEPE corruption must end. Those who illegally received money must return it, and we will not allow such practices and behaviors toward OPEKEPE and European resources to be repeated under any circumstances.”
As he added: “We facilitate the Economic Police in every possible way and thorough inspections are being conducted at all levels. There will certainly be delays in OPEKEPE payments, and there are probably many honest farmers, producers, and livestock farmers who see these payments delayed, and this may cost them in their own efforts and obligations.”
The minister pointed out: “We haven’t made the payments that were scheduled for June 30th, which concerned organic products… There’s a delay of about a month and a half, but there’s a race against time to at least finish the cross-checks so we can pay with terms and rules of transparency… What I can assure them is that payments will continue and will be made normally. This ordeal ultimately has a very important goal, a very big purpose – to bring absolute transparency to OPEKEPE’s operation.”
Asked to comment on opposition criticism, he said: “It’s a shame for the opposition that instead of seeing the big picture and trying to send a stable pedagogical message to society together with the government, since the OPEKEPE case has no party color. Let’s not kid ourselves – one week green might come out, one week blue supposedly officials might come out, another week someone of another party origin. It’s an issue concerning a culture that had been established for very specific reasons, mainly because there was a system that couldn’t conduct cross-checks and thus limit these phenomena.”
Finally, asked whether developments in the OPEKEPE case could affect Greece’s claims for the new CAP, Kostas Tsiaras said: “No, it won’t affect the resources coming to Greece, and I can be absolutely clear about that.”
