Spilios Livanos: 'I was vilified for conducting audits at OPEKEPE'

Former Minister of Rural Development and Food, Spilios Livanos, testified before the parliamentary committee regarding the payment system of community agricultural aid.

He stated that during his tenure, 70 million euros were recovered from unduly paid subsidies. Mr. Livanos emphasized that the policy decisions issued under his ministry aimed to address the 'excessive and unjustified increase in the number of lambs and kids and the excessive increase in claims on public pasture lands.'

Spilios Livanos mentioned that in his effort to combat 'subsidy grabbing' and change OPEKEPE, he faced vilification and threats. He also spoke about the planning of six reform interventions to sanitize OPEKEPE.

Answering a question about Giorgos Xylouris, also known as 'Frappe,' he stated that this person had visited his office many times, but he never met him.

Mr. Livanos also referred to the 'technical solution' to address the rapid increase in the number of lambs and kids in Crete, where a cumulative increase in declarations of 708.7% was observed. The ministerial decisions issued to address false declarations led to savings of approximately 35 million euros.

Finally, Mr. Livanos emphasized that the audits carried out yielded 34,403,754 euros in 2021, compared to previous years.