The work of parliament’s investigative committee continued today, Tuesday, with testimony from OPEKEPE‘s longest-serving president, Athanasios Kaprelis. Referring to the “I agree“ statement by former Agricultural Development Minister Makis Voridis – the signature on the decision implementing the technical solution related to pastureland distribution – he said he was the one who made the relevant recommendation to Mr. Voridis and added that he didn’t propose any alternative regarding the distribution method.
“In 2019 you proposed to Makis Voridis a specific distribution of eligible pasturelands, which is the famous ‘I agree’. Did you propose another distribution method?“ asked New Democracy rapporteur Makarios Lazaridis, with Athanasios Kaprelis answering negatively. Mr. Kaprelis testified to the investigative committee that he had proposed the same distribution method to Makis Voridis’s predecessors. Namely to Stavros Arachovitis and Evangelos Apostolou, emphasizing that they had given him the “green“ light. As he meaningfully stressed, there were three “I agree” statements.
The former OPEKEPE president’s response to SYRIZA – Sharp words about Grigoris Varras
“How did the fictitious livestock capital skyrocket even further? Either the distribution was wrong or the checks weren’t done…“, said SYRIZA rapporteur Vasilis Kokkalis, with the former OPEKEPE president responding that “Grigoris Varras in ’20 used the ’19 distribution without ‘I agree’. Papas subsequently received the minister’s consent“. “I never had intervention from ministers regarding checks. Phone calls from MPs about issues happened, I referred them to the competent vice-presidents“, the witness said at another point.
However, there were also sharp words for his successor, Grigoris Varras. Specifically, referring to the increase in livestock capital, he said that “we handed over to Mr. Varras and briefed him thoroughly. I told him I see a spike. I told Varras that things look a bit inflated. I told him: ‘proceed with emergency checks’. It was at the beginning of his term“.
When asked by PASOK rapporteur Milena Apostolaki about Popi Semertzidou’s partner and why he didn’t send the investigation findings to the prosecutor, he replied: “An investigation was conducted for 1.5 years. 19 teams of inspectors checked the cattle, there was a network. The package was ready to go to the prosecutor, I handed it to Mr. Varras. There were two, three cases ready for the prosecutor“.
At the same time, he focused on the fact that the access of Declaration Reception Centers to all OPEKEPE’s geospatial data is what could have led to the development of fraudulent behavior. “How did we reach fraudulent behavior? In 2017 we were forced by the Community to open all data. That is, everyone in the Declaration Centers could see maps of all of Greece. So when you have someone in Kilkis viewing maps of remote islands, holes are created. What did they do? They delayed until the last minute of declarations so the cunning ones could see the undeclared areas everywhere and declare them“, Mr. Kaprelis testified. According to the former OPEKEPE president, there is notification about checks 48 hours in advance, mainly to livestock farmers so they can gather their herds.
How parties commented on Kaprelis’s testimony
Finally, answering Makarios Lazaridis’s question about Moschos Korasidis and specifically “whether it’s normal for an Organization employee to intervene and give advice to a lawyer for farmers involved in penalty charges of 400,000 euros“, the witness replied: “anyone who hears this says ‘no’“
For their part, New Democracy sources commenting on Mr. Kaprelis’s testimony emphasized that he fully admitted he was the one who recommended the “I agree“ to Makis Voridis, while PASOK sources commented that the witness didn’t substantially answer the questions from opposition MPs. Finally, SYRIZA sources noted that there was no intervention in OPEKEPE during their governance and added that from 2019 onwards there was a surge in the national reserve.
