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Blockage of IPARD/DP funds: Big disaster, caused by government greed

2024-06-21 22:23:00, Aktualitet CNA

Blockage of IPARD/DP funds: Big disaster, caused by government greed

Photo published by PD

The Democratic Party has reacted after the European Union's Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, demanded the return of 33 million euros of IPARD funds from the Ministry of Agriculture and the blocking of the next package.

PD declares that the return of payments made for IPARD II and the suspension of IPARD III is a great disaster, not caused by nature but by the government's greed.

DP considers this decision of OLAF a bad news, in the conditions where Albanian farmers are the most discriminated in the region.

Full statement:

The Albanian state will return 33 million euros as a result of the corruption of the Ministry of Agriculture.

In today's official statement, OLAF states that during the application of IPARD II funds of the first and second tranches, serious violations were found such as:

• Applicants are required to pay a significant portion of their grant to a local consulting company;

• Contracts that are awarded without competition, or through a rigged competition (with false offers being submitted);

• Inflated prices and violation of contractual rules.

After an in-depth investigation, OLAF recommended that the European Commission consider illegal a part of the financing of the First and Second Calls of IPARD II in the amount of 33 million euros.

Therefore, the Albanian state is forced to return this illegally spent amount. In the conditions when the oligarchs who have nothing to do with agriculture have not agreed to return the amount unjustly taken, the Albanian taxpayers will be the ones who will pay for them.

The even worse news is that OLAF recommends that the EU suspend the allocation of 112 million euros of funding for IPARD III, until the Albanian state takes corrective measures to protect the EU's financial interests from any illegal activity.

In the conditions where Albanian farmers are the most discriminated in the region in terms of subsidies (4 times less than Kosovo), the return of payments made for IPARD II and the suspension of IPARD III is a great disaster that came not from nature but from the greed of this irresponsible government./ CNA