They sowed the wind and are reaping the whirlwind. The payment to farmers turned into an absolute parody, and the lies of the political leadership of the Ministry of Rural Development, the government, and the IAPR (Independent Authority for Public Revenue), which has undertaken to absorb OPEKEPE, were exposed, resulting in angry farmers blocking the country's central road networks. The government and the IAPR made the tragic mistake of relying on the rotten system of OPEKEPE and the technical consultant who has been exploiting the Organization for years, and they are now paying the price.
Out of touch with reality
Not even they could understand what they were saying or what would happen when, on Thursday, Tsiaras, Hatzidakis, and Pitsilis announced the payments, but with data that bore no relation to reality. And here, there is no excuse. Especially for the Minister of Rural Development, Kostas Tsiaras, Neuropublic, and the Directors of OPEKEPE, who have executed many payments before and knew the implications of what they had created. The plan was simple: to involve Hatzidakis, Pitsilis, and Kavadas in the problem to share the blame that would fall on the Government in the countryside. The mistakes are tragic, and the mocking nature of the high-profile interview on Thursday, one day before the payment, is now boomerang-ing, as it was exposed in less than 48 hours. The payment coincided with Black Friday, but for the farmers, it was a literal Black Friday. The scene became surrealistically bleak on Friday when farmers began to realize what had happened, as many saw that they were not paid without knowing the reason.
Shock and awe
However, those who felt shock and awe were the ones who were paid. And it was not just that the 70% advance payment had become 45%, as BN had pointed out since Friday morning, but that the payments were completely wrong. Without explanation and without any justification. Besides, OPEKEPE, being a vast mess, does not account for what exactly it is paying, so the farmer knows what they are receiving. Of course, no one could get any answers from the KYD (Control and Certification Centers), which were closed. There are farmers who genuinely wonder how exactly the calculation was made. For instance, those with tree crops (olives, figs, oranges) are tearing their hair out, as no rational person can explain how with the same acreage of, for example, olive trees, different amounts were paid last year and this year when the basic subsidy amount per acre is the same. What happened? Did the fields change shape and grow bears? This alone demonstrates the chaos in the Neuropublic algorithms and among the supposed 'scientists' who hold directorial positions at OPEKEPE, despite everything the public has read about the wiretaps.
Deduction by ELGA and KYD
Subsequently, the surprise was even greater with the deductions made first and foremost by ELGA (Hellenic Agricultural Insurance Organization), as the lists ELGA sent to the Bank amounted to 70% of the insurance contribution, thus effectively shearing the subsidies by removing about 90 million euros right at the start of Black Friday, automatically lowering the available payment amount to 270 million euros. The activation of standing orders for the remuneration of KYD removed another 70 million euros, reducing the payment to 200 million euros or even less, for 600,000 farmers to meet their already overdue obligations. In the end, for the 477 thousand who were supposedly paid, the amount corresponded to about 400 euros per producer. Thus, very simply, small producers in particular may have received a hundred euros, which is not even enough for the supermarket.
BN spoke with farmers, and here are the shameful examples
Example 1
A farmer with 22 acres of olive grove and 400 productive trees received a 230 euro subsidy. Of this: KYD withheld €135, ELGA €75, and in the end, the honest farmer was left with a mere 20 euros. Twenty 20 euros for 22 acres and 400 trees. Apparently, for those who declared gold without having even a flowerpot, lottery winnings rained down. And for those with real land and real effort, they threw €20. And farmers are wondering if they should all declare that they are playing the lottery in the new OSDI declarations, just in case they win, for good luck.
Example 2
A farmer in Trikala cultivates 297 acres with cereals and calculated that he would receive €4,450, 70% of the €6,300 basic subsidy rights. Instead, he received €1,750, of which ELGA kept €1,350, KYD €140, leaving €270, which is €0.9 per acre.
Example 3
A livestock breeder in the Peloponnese with 150 sheep who has delivered 17 tons of milk did not receive even one euro. Apparently, he must wait for the 'heavy artillery' of the auditors to search for the invoices he holds, but they were unable to find them. The problem with livestock breeders and the change in the technical solution's implementation method is greater and affects regions where sheep pox is rampant, such as Thessaly. The indignation is greater according to reports from Serres and Crete.
They called black white
By calling black white, the government showed incompetence in solving the problems created by its insistence on having presidents at OPEKEPE like Babasidis and Salata, the same Technical Consultant, and the, as it turns out, fatal minister Kostas Tsiaras, who is also the champion of Voridis's choices for the Technical Consultant Neuropublic. The result is that they all collectively led to the massacre of payments along with the slaughter of over half a million sheep due to the unjustified spread of sheep pox, stemming from their inability to contain it. Under pressure from polls, the Government regarding OPEKEPE, in an attempt to alleviate the situation, scored a big own goal. It's an own goal because it believed that it could get the job done with the perpetrators of the scandal. Now the time has come to pay the bill. As these lines are being written, farmers, many of whom believed until yesterday that they were mistaken and that Pitsilis would become Santa Claus, now have a black eye since Friday and do not want to see anyone, calling them persona non grata.
Nikos Karoutzos
nkaroutzos@gmail.com
www.bankingnews.gr
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