OPEKEPE continues to send notices to farmers and breeders to return the sums improperly paid, until October 29, causing anger and turmoil throughout the country.
But what the Organization does not answer is why the mistake was made regarding the 2021 rights and if anyone “benefited” from this mistake. Will he also give money back to those who have been wronged?
However, the behavior of the public organization towards the people who produce it is unacceptable and shows a lack of respect.
We remind you that OPEKEPE is a paying organization as well as a regulatory organization, which seems to have been forgotten in recent years. And how can checks be done when we have the problems with the delay in the IACS declaration to satisfy private individuals. We remember how the AAT minister treated the president of OPEKEPE because he wanted to do inspections. And indeed, a few days ago we had the first conviction for illegal grazing in Gia, with prison terms.
However, OPEKEPE’s decision to refund money, at this stage, creates financial shortages for many producer families.
The irony is that OPEKEPE gives the producers the right to lodge a protest, until 29/10/2024, but it does not say that if it is done, it will remain unpaid until October and until it is examined to protest.
We remind you that OPEKEPE has announced that producers have the opportunity to submit objections, until October 29, regarding the implementation of the IACS in Achreostita, accompanied by the evidence.
PEFASY announcement
The Panhellenic Union of Agricultural Service Agencies (PEFASY) issued a statement saying the following:
Since the middle of the previous week, thousands of farmers have been receiving letters from OPEKEPE for reimbursement, until 29/10/2024, since, as the organization’s letter says, “sums paid improperly have emerged that are not big recovery”.
As we already know from a previous announcement made by OPEKEPE, the error occurred because the right line 2021 was mistakenly used instead of the right line with which the December 2022 payment was made.
The error in question concerns 196,083 producers with a known amount of more than 53 million euros.
As a liaison, we have repeatedly informed the management and relevant directors of OPEKEPE in writing about the absurd settlements wrongly paid in June 2023 but the responses we received were encouraging and informed us that an amount has emerged that was held as. a reserve from the December payment without needs that would eventually arise for its use, for this reason it was given in the June liquidation to all the beneficiaries with an increase in the value of the DBE unit and a change in the lock-in percentage (criminal hell).
Because of this mistake, OPEKEPE is suddenly asking almost 200,000 producers to return the money mentioned in the letter they received within the month of October on the grounds that they received an incorrect amount of subsidy in the year 2022.
It even gives the right to file an appeal (no luck) but this will have no effect if the organization believes it paid the wrong amount in 2022 and the new amounts it decided are now correct.
However, he forgets to mention in his letter that anyone who lodges an objection against the results, until 29/10/2024, will remain unpaid before October and until his objection is examined, as has been done every year since after submitting a statement. objection to the results to be taken into account for amounts improperly paid.
Only 10 days were given to correct the applications and with the bad debt letters sent by OPEKEPE for the year 2024, hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries will have to go to the KYD to be informed about the bad debts to make decisions within the last month September , which is practically impossible since there is no image of the debtors to the farmers of each KYD but an account should be created with the personal information of each beneficiary with a valid email and identification through Taxi codes to connect to the corresponding platform to send the letter to check.
The specific decision at this point creates a financial deadlock for most farmers who are unable to return the amounts requested by the organization and their own mistakes. This money was budgeted into the account of all possessions, used and taxed.
At this time of permanent economic hardship for farmers, something like this will be a luxury for some. We express our particular concern as to whether payment 23 was made in the correct way and whether a new payment will be made inappropriately.
We ask:
- Suspend the decision to refund or offset amounts against 2024 payments.
- Draft a plan to cover the amounts improperly paid to all farmers through national funding.
- The control of the competent authorities for all those involved in the tragic management and ultimately the wrong payment to hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries.
- The imposition of the corresponding sanctions and the demand for compensation for waste of resources, breach of duty and non-fulfilment of the contractual obligations of the parties concerned. Everyone who signed should be held accountable.
- Issuing an official rights title for the entire registration period.
- The immediate meeting with the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, to find a solution.
OPEKEPE cannot make mistakes and send the bill to the farmers, but when the farmers make mistakes, they will leave their mistakes unpaid for eternity.
Notice PASOK
A joint announcement from the Agriculture and Food Development Sector PASOK-Movement for Change and MPs Manolis Chnari – Christina Starakas states the following:
Due to the inadequacy of the government in managing simple administrative actions, the failures, the wrong government choices and the interventions, there is uncertainty in the rural population of the country.
A few days ago, the farmers were greatly affected by the thousands of notices that were suddenly sent to return sums of money in direct aid.
In particular, from October 2, 2024, OPEKEPE requests from 196,083 Individual Assistance beneficiaries the immediate return as improperly paid, amounts of money related to part of the aid given for the year of IACS 2022 applications.
As OPEKEPE says in a statement: “the error arose from the mistaken use of the entitlement line of the year 2021 instead of the correct year 2022, in a separate cross-check which led to an incorrect payment in July 2023”.
As PASOK Movement for Change did, with our announcement, from 04/07/2024, we drew attention to the report of the European Court of Auditors in which a horizontal error was identified in the process of calculating payments of agricultural subsidies of the initial estimate of 63,035,249 euros. , which OPEKEPE according to its calculations set at 50,755,440 euros.
In any case, instead of the government stepping in and protecting the farm income that is hit every day by the high cost of production, it is passing on the cost of its own mistakes to the farmers.
Therefore, the competent Minister for Rural Development and Food, as the political head of OPEKEPE, must give us an answer immediately, who is responsible for this new fiasco.
For us in PASOK, the strengthening of agricultural income, the protection of the quality of life in the countryside and agricultural production are still at the heart of our policy. We will strongly oppose policies like this, which bring farmers into disrepute.