Despite investment, agriculture fails to perform

Agriculture and rural development did not perform as expected despite state investment schemes, the Audit Office said in a report released on Tuesday.

The report found that a significant percentage of companies participating in the schemes – such as the Common Agricultural Programme and the Common Markets Organisation – did not present improved financials as a result of funding they received during the period 2007 to 2016.

“Therefore, the sector of agriculture and rural development, in which these companies are active, did not benefit to the expected degree,” it said.

Moreover, because these schemes lacked a uniform procedure in terms of the financial information provided by participating companies, it was not possible for the implementing organisation – the Agricultural Payments Organisation – to assess either the eligibility of those companies at the time or whether the companies benefited in retrospect.

The Audit Office examined a random sample of 54 corporations that participated in the various state-funded schemes. The combined funding for these 54 entities came to €19.4 million.

Between the year of receiving financing, and until 2020 or the year with the latest available financial statements, 12 companies to which €4.5 million was paid (23.4 per cent of the sample funding) presented no improvement in their financial status.

Meantime seven companies receiving €2.5 million (13.1 per cent of the sample funding) presented a negative financial performance, and three companies getting €1.1 million have since gone bankrupt or are currently under liquidation.

In its report, the Audit Office says the Agricultural Payments Organisation should set out specific criteria for eligibility in these programmes, and that it require applying companies to file the same type of financial information – so that it can be later assessed whether they benefited or not.