Former OPEKEPE chief testifies in parliamentary inquiry

The parliamentary enquiry into the operations of Greece’s disgraced workplace subsidy agency, OPEKEPE, continued with the testimony of Evangelos Simandrakos, who served arsenic the organization’s president from July '22 until January 2024.

In his testimony, Simandrakos defended his tenure, stressing that farmers were paid connected clip and that the bureau performed “excellently” during '22 and 2023.

He highlighted his adjacent practice with then-Agriculture Minister Giorgos Georgantas and noted that helium had complied with the government’s directive to transfer OPEKEPE information to the gov.gr platform.

Simandrakos besides said that, upon assuming the presidency, helium resigned from his backstage agronomy business, and helium returned to the institution a year aft his resignation. 

Explaining his resignation from OPEKEPE, Simandrakos cited a deficiency of connection with the then-agriculture curate Lefteris Avgenakis, claiming that Avgenakis had asked him three times to step down.

“The curate chose to undermine my quality and nonrecreational standing successful bid to unit maine out,” Simandrakos said, reiterating that, under his leadership, nary outgo delays to farmers occurred. 

In effect to a question from PASOK MP Milena Apostolaki astir payments to thousands of farmers with blocked tax recognition numbers, helium said that aft his departure from the organization, the committee of directors’ minutes recorded a statement by his successor, Kyriakos Babasidis, that helium had received instructions from supra to proceed.