The Regional Council of Calabria approved the bill presented jointly by the president of the assembly Filippo Mancuso and by all groups, on «Rewards in the procedures for awarding public contracts for companies resistant to organized crime».
«A law – said the President of the Region Roberto Occhiuto – which intends to promote a discussion also at national level on ways to intervene on the procurement code to the benefit of the companies and entrepreneurs who report. We are tired of recording in the national debate on the issues of combating the ‘Ndrangheta the absence of exceptional tools to stand alongside those who report. And it makes us credible as institutions when we ask entrepreneurs and businesses to report these phenomena.” Occhiuto highlighted the hard work carried out by the entrepreneur Antonino De Masi, under guard for years after reporting the racket. «He asked me – said the governor – to act as promoter of this law, but I believed that it was the Council as a whole that made a commitment in this direction, even if the proposal is entirely De Masi’s. The story that the institutions must tell is that of a Region that knows how to rebel against the criminal powers that provide a terrible advertisement for those who want to damage Calabria. We must carry out our duty as administrators by counteracting in every way the infiltration of possible criminal powers, which now have their management centers far from Calabria”.
Occhiuto, who recalled having had the law on the evaluation of candidate lists amended announced that he had asked councilor Pietropaolo to also provide the anti-mafia investigative directorate with the data of Calabria’s hospitals and healthcare companies. «It is good – argued the governor – that there is control by those who have the tools to exercise this control. We have stipulated protocols with the Financial Police and the Carabinieri. But it’s not enough. Whoever is part of Calabria’s ruling group must demonstrate that they know how to stay close to those people who had the courage to denounce the ‘Ndrangheta. Someone said that there is a risk of the Government challenging this law because it does not correspond to the provisions of the Procurement Code. However, it will serve to discuss it at a national level.”
Consortia and Green Calabria
At the request of the agriculture councilor Gianluca Gallo the examination of the proposed law on Forestry has been included. «Through an amendment – explained councilor Gianluca Gallo – the workers of the Reclamation Consortia will be transferred to Calabria Verde, in the forestry sector, from next December 1st. A similar provision will concern the workers of law 15, who are part of the precarious sector, to be transferred, on a voluntary basis, with a hydraulic-forestry contract on a daily basis, again to Calabria Verde”.
A decision that President Roberto Occhiuto justified with the aim of drying up the precarious employment pool and giving rights to those who have fewer: «With the law we avoid the hybrid that has been created over the years which consists in the fact that some workers were diverted to the Reclamation Consortia, others to Green Calabria. The regional government wants to stabilize temporary workers.”