Foggia, the shadow of the mafia on contracts in three local health authorities. Two companies of the D’Alba group have been reported

After the anti-mafia disqualification of prefect of Foggia, Maurizio Valiantetowards the cooperative “Three Flames”, motivated by the underlying contiguity to organized crime circles, two other companies of the same group headed by the D’Alba familythe “San Giovanni di Dio” and “Lav.it” to which Innovapuglia awarded a contract worth 112 million 339 thousand 735.35 euros. In the telematic tender managed in 2020 by Innovapuglia, a company of the Region active as a center of expertise for the integrated management of purchases, Lav.it has won over three other competitors, ensuring for five years the wash-hire services (washing and rental) in healthcare companies and Irccs (hospitalization and care institutes in scientific nature) from Puglia. Both companies are mentioned in the disqualification, together with “Tre Fiammelle”, as belonging to the D’Alba family and minority shareholders of the Foggia-based “Universo salute srl”. This and more is being reported these days by the management of the Policlinico Riuniti to the prefecture of Foggia. Information that is added to what is contained in the 18-page interdiction against the company of which the entrepreneur Michele D’Alba is the representative and vice president of the board. News that also provides a rather detailed picture of the activities and turnover of the “San Giovanni di Dio”: over 100 million euros in revenues for the five-year management of the Rsa of the Asl of Bari and more than 10 million euros for services rendered by the rehabilitation center of Adelfia agreement with the same Asl. But the reports addressed to the territorial office of the government also mention agreements between “Universo Salute” and the ASL of Foggia and the Bat for a value of around 40 million euros, which added to others would bring the revenue bar to over 300 million euros spread over the last few years.

The climb

The outlined picture, therefore, is that of a group that from the Foggia area extended to two other provinces (Bari and Bat) managing to take root rather permanently. In June of 2017 “Universo Salute srl” acquired the clinics Don Uva of Bisceglie, Foggia and Potenza. The following year the group led by Michele D’Alba and his son-in-law Raffaele Pio De Nittismanager of the “San Giovanni di Dio”, took over the rehabilitation center “Padre Pio” of Capurso. The company ended up in the prefect’s crosshairs, on his part, in addition to expressing amazement at the disqualification, he announced an appeal with a request for suspension. The Tre Fiammelle cooperative society expresses great surprise after the adoption against it of the anti-mafia interdiction by the prefect of Foggia – the group’s top management announced – although it had provided, within the limits permitted by the meager communication of initiation of the procedure received, all the elements aimed at demonstrating the non-existence of the conditions for the imposition of such a measure. The mission of the lawyers now is to try to break up the articulated reasons with which the prefecture intended to give substance to its provision. Starting with the results of the investigations that led to the operations “Tenth Action” and “Tenth Action Bis”, from which the subjection of Michele D’Alba to a sovereignty tax imposed by the mafia association Societ Foggiana would emerge. But above all, the existence of a relationship between the entrepreneur himself and top exponents of the criminal association would be deduced, initially of underlying contiguity, but which is objectified in the expository shyness manifested when he himself presented himself to the police to report having suffered an extortion request. All this, despite the interceptions it would appear that D’Alba was already in contact with a defendant for the protection money.