The Director General of the Agency for Payments and Interventions in Agriculture (APIA), Ionuc Lupu, was fired on Tuesday evening by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Florin Barbou, due to delays in the payment of subsidies to farmers and blockages in the system.

“Tonight, I signed an order to fire the CEO of APIA, Ionuts Lupa, for delaying payments to farmers and blocking the system. We had a meeting this evening regarding the disbursement of subsidies and the unlocking of new schemes for farmers, but he did not even come to the institution. We have given a deadline to those with APIA that within two weeks we will pay the Transitional National Aid and the PD-04 greening eco-scheme,” said Minister Florin Barbou for the Agerpres agency.

He noted that many farmers appealed to him to make changes in the APIA due to the existing blockade in the agency. Several farmers have even asked for the return of Adrian Pinto as head of APIA, who is now the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR).

The leadership of APIA will be taken over by Cornel Turcescu, who headed the agency before the arrival of Ionuc Lupa, but the management positions of the payment agencies under MADR will be put up for competition as soon as possible, Florin Barbu also said.

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