The revelations surrounding the illegal distribution of agricultural subsidies by the Greek Agency for Payments and Control in the Management and Guarantee of Community Aid (OPEKEPE) reveal a deeply corrupt system in which inspectors, farmers and local party cadres act in coordination, writes the newspaper Kathimerini.

Recordings of wiretapped phones reveal that farmers were warned in advance of inspections by OPEKEPE employees, who even helped them move sheep and cattle so that they could be “registered” in different herds and under false names, in order to receive EU subsidies.

In one of the recordings, the deputy chairman of OPEKEPE, Lefteris Zervos, furiously criticizes “incompetent” farmers for not even being able to effectively stage a fraud. “Can’t they find money for ear tags?” he indignantly asks a local representative of the conservative party. Zervos even advises farmers to declare that they own more animals, because it is easier to hide than “fictional plots”.

Local representatives and ministers are also involved in the scheme, intervening to protect angry voters. One farmer, fined 53,000 euros for illegally received subsidies, personally called the chairman of OPEKEPE, threatening to kill the agency’s two vice-chairmen.

In another case, a desperate local politician begged an outraged farmer “not to beat up the inspectors”, but instead simply “to speak firmly to them, because he needs the money”. | BGNES