Abuse of office, what is it. “90% of suspects acquitted” – Corriere.it

The last famous case in chronological order concerns lformer governor of Calabria Mario Oliverio: the court of Catanzaro acquitted him of the charge of abuse of office for having allocated 95,000 euros in 2018 to promote the tourist beauties of his region at the Festival of the Two Worlds in Spoleto. But in the same hours the same crime cost one one-year sentence for the mayor of Reggio Calabria Giuseppe Falcomat who in 2015 granted a municipal building to a non-profit organization. Go figure. The only certain thing that thearticle 323 of the penal code for at least twenty years the torment of mayors, local administrators, regional presidents and already down to simple officials who periodically end up in the shirts of abuse of office: a violation that affects ubiquitously belonging to all political alignments.

The problem has been re-proposed on several occasions, the last two days ago at the Anci assembly by mayors from all over Italy. the prime minister Giorgia Meloni announced that she will start rewriting the text but Luigi Di Maio had done the same in 2019. Just reading the article as reported by the code is enough to realize how much there is room for interpretations. The public official or person in charge of a public service is guilty of abuse of office who, in carrying out their functions or services, in violation of the law or regulation, or by failing to abstain in the presence of a personal interest or a next of kin or in other prescribed cases, intentionally procures an unjust pecuniary advantage for others or causes unjust harm to others. Any administrative act, from a fine binned upwardsrisks being read as a gesture contrary to the law with the result that the fear of abuse of office often ends up shake the hand of mayors when signing an order.

The sentence ranges from one to four years. The last rewrite dates back to 1997 and in that case – it was in the years following Tangentopoli – a more permissive correction was passed and the maximum sentence was also lowered from 5 to 4 years (which today For example, it prevents telephone interceptions when the prosecution suspects the existence of this crime). From 2008 to 219, they were 150 public officials convicted for this case but the acquittals were much more numerous. Maybe they arrive after a decade. As happened toformer mayor of Novara Massimo Giordano whose alleged personal interest had consisted in not having taken action against a bar from which noises came at night.

As mayors we have asked for its reformulation to arrive at a clear rule. Also because – he concluded – statistically the investigations into alleged abuses they end in 90% of cases with acquittalswhile the impact on the lives of unjustly accused directors remains, said ithe president of the Italian mayors Antonio De Caromayor of Bari. In January a sentence of the Cassation tried to clarify by writing that because the abuse of office is recognizable intentionality must be proven. But in the meantime the illustrious victims of this judicial roulette are countless. There are, for example, the former pentastellata mayor of Rome Virginia Raggihis colleague from Turin Chiara Appendinothe governor of Lombardy Attilio Fontana (all acquitted) but also administrators who live their travail away from the spotlight such as (we are always with the last acquitted in chronological order) the mayor of Grumo Nevano or the personnel manager of the municipality of Lizzanello. The latter ended up under investigation for a matter of holidays not granted.