Denials the charges attributed to them, Dimitris Melas, head of OPEKEPE in the period 2021-2022 and earlier vice-president, and the former director of Direct Aid and Technical Projects of the Organization, Athanasia Reppa, apologized before the three-member misdemeanor court.

The two former staff of the agricultural payment agencyformulated in the court where they have been on trial for months, their response to the accusations attributed to them and which concern the embezzlement of a document, abetting a criminal and joint breach of duty.

The trial of the two former executives of the Organization, which is now entering the final stretch for the court’s verdict, began last October with the first witness, the employee of OPEKEPE, Friday Tycheropoulou.

OR witness in 2020as responsible for unduly paid sums for the National Reserve, carried out checks by order of the then president of OPEKEPE, Grigoris Varras, as there were suspicions of abusive statements in pastures. According to the charge against Melas and Reppas, the findings of its audit were not sent to the Justice Department, as Mr. Varras had stipulated, who had since left the Organization, although the audit had established that for specific TINs there were serious irregularities, with areas and there seemed to be an artificial creation of rights.

“My name is in the vortex of negative publicity. It is very unfair and it will be proven in the near future, that some attempted ‘character assassination'” said the former president during his lengthy apology OKAYDimitris Melas, who was the first to take the stage before the judges.

Mr. Melas cited a series of documents speaking of “over-intensification of controls” during his tenure at the organization, “with an excess of available staff,” as he said, claiming that the necessary measures had been taken. He also emphasized that the criticism about the creation of “factions” within OPEKEPE is not correct. During his apology, he left sharp points against Mr. Varra, a witness in the trial for the period when the latter had the reins of the Organization, saying that if his boss at the time really had a problem with him, he should have spoken to him.

“Me, if I had a problem with my vice president, I would talk to him or go to my minister and say that I have signs of dishonesty. For sure I would tell my minister, I wouldn’t stay with a vice president I couldn’t work with. As soon as I went to Maximos, I would have told the prime minister that ‘you have a dishonest person in there’ and the next day I would have resigned,” said Mr. Melas.

During his confession, the accused referred to her movement Paraskevi Tycheropoulou to the Education department, saying that it was not a demotion, but on the contrary, that he considered the new position that the employee was assigned, as “vital”. He also claimed that the employee’s new position was “equal and without a salary reduction”. He also stated that Tycheropoulou’s transfer was decided “after complaints to the directorate he served”.

Regarding the charge of embezzlement of documents related to Ms. Tycheropoulou’s audits, Mr. Melas said that “it would be stupid for someone to think of embezzling, hiding the file, which at any time you could look for in the system. All the offices had a view.” He even emphasized that such an act “would have some substance if it was done between management and an employee in secret, without the results having been passed to the system”.

Regarding the offense of breach of duty attributed to him for not communicating Tycheropoulou’s findings to the Justice, the accused said that the priority was to have strong evidence of any irregularity before forwarding it to the prosecution. As he pointed out, he has filed five lawsuits for “obvious” cases of fraud.

The defendant pointed out to the court that “my name was never involved in any process, not even as a journalistic censure”. He also mentioned that until he was found accused, he had only been in courtrooms as a witness. “I have always operated within the framework of legality. I have never damaged the European coffers. “When did I not pressure employees to do something that I considered irregular, something that was beyond the procedures” asserted Mr. Melas.

In her apology, Ms. Reppa emphasized that since 2018 there had been an “unusual increase in large areas” and that she herself recommended controls for the national reserve in 2017. The defendant also referred to the controversial Tycheropoulou report, telling the court that she charged it to the competent planning and assessment control department and that she found “ambiguities” in it. Explaining the issue of “ambiguities” he referred to “lack of attachments and the absence of a documented risk analysis per producer”.

As the defendant pointed out, the unclear inspection order and the exclusive signature of the editor “leave room for discretionary treatment and opacity in the order and method of inspections”. She also said that she informed her supervisor, Dimitris Melas, about these observations and while waiting for additional material from Ms. Tycheropoulou, she forwarded the report for further study to the relevant Technical Controls department. The accused at the beginning of her apology noted that the organization had increasing demands with insufficient human resources. As he pointed out, the Directorate of Technical Controls was operating with only three employees even though it had a key role.”