Former OPEKEPE chief testifies in parliamentary inquiry
The parliamentary inquiry into the operations of Greece’s disgraced farm subsidy agency, OPEKEPE, continued with the testimony of Evangelos Simandrakos, who served as the organization’s president from July 2022 until January 2024.
In his testimony, Simandrakos defended his tenure, stressing that farmers were paid on time and that the agency performed “excellently” during 2022 and 2023.
He highlighted his close cooperation with then-agriculture minister Giorgos Georgantas and noted that he had complied with the government’s directive to transfer OPEKEPE data to the gov.gr platform.
Simandrakos also said that, upon assuming the presidency, he resigned from his private agronomy business, and he returned to the company a year after his resignation from OPEKEPE.
Explaining his resignation from OPEKEPE, Simandrakos cited a lack of communication with the then-agriculture minister Lefteris Avgenakis, claiming that Avgenakis had asked him three times to step down.
“The minister chose to undermine my character and professional standing in order to force me out,” Simandrakos said, reiterating that, under his leadership, no payment delays to farmers occurred.
In response to a question from PASOK MP Milena Apostolaki about payments to thousands of farmers with blocked tax identification numbers, he said that after his departure from the organization, his successor, Kyriakos Babasidis, said during a board of directors meeting that he had received instructions from above to proceed.
Kathimerini
