“While citizens pay the maximum rates of local taxes and an increasingly heavy TARI, the Municipality increases the cost of the bodies of its subsidiaries. A choice that appears in clear contradiction with the rebalancing plan, which envisaged a drastic reduction in the costs of politics”. He thus attacks the “Scurria Mayor” Council Group, composed of Marcello Scurria, Pippo Capurro and Simona Contestabile. “In Messina, the consolidation of accounts seems to have a precise direction when it concerns citizens, but another when it concerns politics. While the people of Messina are asked to make ever greater sacrifices, with local tax rates at maximum levels and the increase in the TARI, in the municipality’s investee companies the sole administrators are replaced by boards of directors. A choice which has a consequence that is anything but marginal: the costs of politics go from around 288 thousand to almost 700 thousand euros per year. 400 thousand euros more every year. An expense that has more than doubled. A figure that appears difficult to reconcile with the financial rebalancing plan of the Municipality, in which, among the measures aimed at reorganizing the accounts, a drastic reduction in political costs was foreseen. Yet, as emerges from the six-monthly reports of the Board of Auditors sent to the Court of Auditors, the objective of reducing costs would not have been achieved.
“There is then a further element that deserves to be clarified – the three councilors further explain – The appointment provisions, as far as emerges from the documents, do not contain a specific motivation on the reasons for the choice of the Board of Directors in place of the sole director. A particularly significant aspect, considering that the new governance involves a significant increase in public spending. If it is decided to replace a sole director with a collegial body, resulting in such a significant increase in costs, it is legitimate to ask what concrete administrative, organizational or management need justifies this choice. just name it. We need to explain why. The political and administrative coherence of a choice that determines an increase of over 400 thousand euros per year is in question at a time when the Municipality should be pursuing a reduction in political costs and while citizens are being asked to make further sacrifices.”
The questions that the administration must answer
“From 288 thousand to almost 700 thousand euros is not a marginal change. It is an increase of over 400 thousand euros per year. And so the questions are inevitable: Why replace sole directors with boards of directors? What concrete need justifies this choice? Why is the reason for the choice not made explicit in the appointment provisions? How can this increase in spending be reconciled with the rebalancing plan which envisaged the reduction of political costs?”
The Democratic Party is also on the attack
Over five hundred and fifty people responded to the Municipality’s public notices for eighteen positions in the top management of investee companies, presenting curricula, titles and professional experience. Fifteen of the eighteen chosen were candidates, a few months ago, on the lists in support of the mayor Federico Basile. «The question is inevitable: what purpose did the other curricula serve? What comparison was carried out, with what criteria were the best profiles identified?”, declares the Democratic Party’s advisory group.
«The mayor’s fiduciary power is not in question, and is provided for by law. It is another thing to build a public procedure that feeds citizens the expectation of an effective selection, to then arrive at a result that resembles the continuation of the electoral lists, with the task ending up with unelected candidates or in any case with people close to the administration. To the five hundred and thirty-two who didn’t make it, we can only suggest that they run in the next elections with De Luca and Basile: it seems to be the most effective criterion for hoping for an office in this city.”
«We do not discuss in advance the skills of the individual nominees, who will be judged by the work they carry out, a very important job, given that a large part of the municipal services are managed by the subsidiaries. We contest a method and a model of power: fifteen lists in support of the mayor in the last elections, a political-electoral machine unprecedented in size, hundreds of nominations collected for the subsidiaries and finally fifteen nominations out of eighteen drawn from those who had run for office without being elected.”
«At this point it becomes difficult to take seriously the rhetoric of the anti-system with which Cateno De Luca travels around Sicily promising liberations and revolutions. The system already exists, and it is the one built in Messina. And when they explain to us that the Messina model must be exported throughout the island, we now know more clearly which model they are talking about.” On the appointments in investee companies and on the criteria adopted, the Democratic Party’s advisory group will hold a press conference tomorrow, Thursday 10 September, at 10.30 in the commission room of the Municipality of Messina.