About 15 million lei is to be paid back to the state by farmers who obtained subsidies and didn’t use them for the right purpose. Dumitru Popovich, head of the law division of the Agency for Intervention and Payments in Agriculture, has told IPN that over 30 such cases are pending.
The jurist said the irregularities were identified at the post-inspection stage. If the farmer does not return the money during 15 days, the file will be sent to court.
As regards the examination of new applications for subsidies, irregularities were identified in 216 cases. The applicants have ten days to remove these so as to be able to get the money. Otherwise, the applications will be rejected as ineligible.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry and the Agency for Intervention and Payments in Agriculture announced that the process of paying subsidies for 2016 was completed at the end of March. The agriculture subsidization fund last year was of 700 million lei, 380 million lei of which represented ENPARD funds. So far the Agency has transferred about 560 million lei to agricultural producers based on 4,300 applications for subsidies.
