In recent days, the last installment of the repayment plan for the debt settlement from the previous managements of Atam, the company that owns the Local Public Transport service for the City of Reggio Calabria, was paid. The mayor of Reggio Calabria Giuseppe Falcomatà announced this in a note and expressed satisfaction with the important result achieved which opens a new season for investments and the growth of the company and the public transport service in the Reggio Calabria area.
“Eleven years ago Atam had practically already gone bankrupt – explains Falcomatà – thanks to the foresight of our Administration we managed to avoid the worst and start a recovery process which, with the support of employees and company management, has achieved extraordinary results in recent years. We were in the abyss, today we are an example of correct management and efficiency of services, with one of the most modern fleets in Italy, with important investments in electricity and renewable energy, which allow us to reduce costs and provide services continuously more punctual and widespread. It is a result that was unthinkable when we started and which today is a beautiful reality available to the entire city community”
The repayment plan, defined with the so-called “quater scrapping”, on the previous debt, is therefore definitively extinguished. As early as next month, the resources previously set aside and used every year to deal with the inherited chasm will be available to support company investments, and make Atam even more modern and equipped for public service, and to recover what has been left out in recent years due to the commitments undertaken with the Revenue Agency, social security bodies and suppliers. The original debt, at the date of the first installments, amounted to a total of 37 million euros (for the Treasury 24 million, INPS for 3 million, 4 million for severance pay and 6 million for suppliers).
The tax years to which the debtor referred were those prior to the bankruptcy petition submitted by the Reggio Calabria Prosecutor’s Office in 2014, which only the action of the municipal administration led by Giuseppe Falcomatà prevented from resulting in the definitive default, which would have represented a drama for 300 Reggio Calabria families, as well as a heavy blackout for the city’s public transport service.
“What we are writing today – stated the mayor – is a positive page for the Company, for the City and the entire Reggio community, which can now count on a healthy mobility system and ready to face the future scenarios that we are planning together with the Company. Thanks are addressed to the Board of Directors, to the entire governance and above all to Atam’s employees, who in recent years have faced even the most delicate challenges with a great sense of responsibility and belonging. Today Atam is a healthy, modern, dynamic and especially in growth. The latest planned investments, which are already bringing about important results in terms of improving the service, fully demonstrate this. We are definitively putting a season of sacrifices behind us and we are entering a phase of expansion that also wants to go beyond the municipal borders. To do so – concluded Falcomatà – it is necessary to also intervene on a regional level, also thanks to the new ones. vehicles and company equipment that we have recently purchased”.