The Guardia di Finanza intervenes in the Sicily Region case and the 3.7 million for Cannes. Schifani: «Yes to revocation»- Corriere.it

New developments on the Sicily Region case and the direct assignment by the Tourism Department, with an expense of 3.7 million euros, to the Luxembourg company Absolute blue for the initiative Sicily, women and cinema at the Cannes film festival

. A case that has judicial aspects – all still to be ascertained – and important political repercussions that transcend the regional level. In terms of news, the soldiers of the Guardia di Finanza arrived yesterday at the offices of the Tourism Department. The economic-financial police nucleus of Palermo has acquired documents as part of the investigation opened by the prosecutor’s office of the Court of Auditors on the matter in question. The president of the Region, Renato Schifani, intervened with a directive addressed to the councilor Francesco Scarpinato (exponent of FdI) and to the general manager of Tourism, asking to adopt the revocation in self-defense of any act potentially producing damage and responsibility for the Region in relation to participation in the next edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

The Attorney General of the Region, has ascertained that, regarding the assignment of the event Sicily, women and cinema, did not find full correctness in the application of article 63 of the Procurement Code, which provides for the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a call for tenders. Schifani had already asked Scarpinato for clarifications, explaining that he did not rule out the suspension of the provision in self-defense. There was an acceleration yesterday. Schifani himself had said: I fear this story is causing serious damage to the image of our land. I come from a legal background and a long political experience, I don’t like head shots and as a lawyer I want to look at the papers and evaluate the political effects of some choices. I want to have a complete picture in the short term, the developments of which are getting heavier every day.

And so it was, with a crescendo of events which led to the directive of the President of the Region with the request for the revocation in self-protection of the spending provision of 3.7 million. Scarpinato, before the latest developments, had stated: I will speak with the press, without escaping any confrontation, only after conferring, for institutional courtesy, with Schifani to whom I will deliver a detailed report as a matter of urgency.

The case was originally raised by an article by Mario Barresi on Sicily. The oppositions, primarily the Democratic Party, had listed a series of expenses, deeming them exorbitant so as to ask that the hypothesis of tax damage be assessed. With the new spending provision, there is a total of 5.9 million euros in direct assignment to Absolute blue (in two years). This is to advertise Sicily with events and a photographic exhibition at the festival. Some discontent had already emerged within the center-right majority itself, with the secretary of the League on the island, the national deputy Antonio Minardo, distancing himself: Since the beginning of the legislature, there has been talk only of personal grievances, unjustified of appointments while the problems remain all there in the background but very present in the lives of the Sicilians. I perceived a fair discomfort from President Schifani with respect to certain situations and a discomfort that I share, one cannot think of managing a department as a sort of personal hunting reserve, of one’s current or party and it is not possible to face a natural spoils system manual Cencelli in hand.

It should be remembered that at the time of the not short stage of training the new government had leaked the news that FdI would have placed the request to have a member of the Brothers of Italy at the Tourism Department as a fundamental point on the negotiating table. Insiders have repeatedly stressed that the new councilor Scarpinato and the previous Manlio Messina were Melonians. The leader of Forza Italia in Sicily, Gianfranco Miccich, had criticized Schifani’s political choices arguing that for the formation of the regional government he had preferred to dialogue with the national leaders of FdI rather than with his party. Quarrels and misunderstandings that helped convince Miccich to leave the Senate to stay in the Sicilian Parliament.