Supervision and audit of the Greek agricultural cooperatives: a critical approach on legislation

Abstract:

The supervision and audit of agricultural cooperatives in Greece are neither defined nor used with a clear content in the Greek legal texts. Nevertheless, it has been argued that supervision is mainly associated with broad monitoring duties, including advice and guidance, whereas audit is usually limited to a financial and legal control of the enterprise.

The aforementioned institutions have not been adequately prescribed by law and effectively applied in practice, in order to address the cooperatives’ needs and protect the members’, the minority’s and the public interest. The recent legal reforms, since the outbreak of the crisis, brought to the fore the topic of cooperative supervision and audit. Thus, a question is posed of whether they have been a positive step forward.

The present article, therefore, aiming to analyze relevant past and recent laws, concluded that despite minor innovations the shortcoming of the above institutions are yet to be resolved. Thus, a politically independent supervisory authority, a cooperative- oriented audit examining the cooperative’s impact to its members, the environment and the local community, as well as the formation of a scientific committee to monitor the cooperative laws’ implementation are suggested as necessary changes for the improvement of the existing regime.