The OPEKEPE in AADE is trying to put its announcement to integrate the OPEKEPE into the government and as the scandal unfolds, with new evidence of two letters from the former governor of the Agency, Vangelis Simandrakos, to the former deputy minister to the prime minister Giannis Bratakos in November and December 2023, informing him of the “blocking” of 9,309 VAT numbers, but also of the stifling political pressure he was receiving from Lefteris Avgenakis.

As for the “cleansing” part, next week the first provision for the absorption of the OPEKEPE by the AADE included in a bill of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance will be discussed in the Parliament. The AADE gains full access to OPEKEPE’s data, while the aim is that from 2026 payments will be made exclusively by the independent authority.

“In order to break clientelistic attitudes, we need a faceless administration that does not do favours and does not judge citizens according to what they vote for. Technology can help solve this long-standing problem of the Greek public administration,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis said yesterday from the Economist’s dinner in Lagonisi, with an indirect reference to the goings-on with the agency.

Government sources insist that New Democracy is studying the dossier and will not rush its own moves in the House of Representatives, expecting PASOK to make the first move. On the other hand, information is also reaching the government that PASOK will need more time to evaluate the case, possibly waiting for new evidence that may be transmitted and will have to be co-evaluated with a unified logic. “We will move away from a witch hunt but also away from any logic of a cover-up,” a competent government source said.

Maximou Semandrakos and Avgenakis

In any case, every day the government is called upon to manage another “track” of this case, although at every opportunity it proclaims its will to break the OPEKEPE abscess. The Semandrakou letters that came to light and the briefing in Maximou on both the “blocked” VATs and the behaviour of Mr Avgenakis, who was accused of putting the European certification of the organisation in question, put Maximou in a defensive position.

Maximou’s associates, and in particular Mr. Bratakos, according to the government staff, let Mr. Semandrakos block these AFMs on his own initiative. That is, the 2023 payments were made exactly as decided by the then OPEKEPE president, with the blocked “red” taxpayer ID numbers outside of the payments. Of course, Maximou is faced with the political question of what happened in the spring of 2024, since Simandrakos had resigned at the end of 2023 and while Avgenakis was still minister. If payments were made following checks on the disputed “red” Taxpayer Identification Numbers, then the scope as to the investigation of Mr. Avgenakis’ handling is different. And the Mansion House, it should be noted, has so far avoided giving a binding answer on the payments for the first months of 2024.