Humanitarian aid, Giorgetti would like to place an official in each NGO board of auditors

ROMA – Article 112, contained in the draft of the 2025 budget law, provides for the inclusion of a representative of the Ministry of Economy and Finance in the control bodies of humanitarian organizations and companies that receive public contributions, including indirect ones, exceeding 100 thousand euros. There was an immediate response from the head of a civil society structure, Giampaolo Silvestri, general secretary of the AVSI Foundation, an NGO inspired by the values ​​of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, founded in 1972 and involved with more than 200 cooperation projects development in 38 countries. It is present in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

The controls are already there and they are severe and meticulous. Silvestri says: “The objective of wanting to verify how public resources are used is a legitimate and sacrosanct objective. However – added the general secretary of AVSI – it is good that it is known that already now, in compliance with the current law that regulates the reporting of organisations, any contribution in whatever form it takes place is subjected to very strict controls and procedures for the detailed reporting of every euro spent. Therefore, the presence of a government representative seems to have another intent, closer to that of top-down control which, above all, goes against the principle of subsidiarity”.

It would require thousands of officials located in the certification bodies. In short, concluded Silvestri, “if the rationale is to better control how public money is spent, we can only reiterate that the controls, which we repeat are very severe, already exist and work very well. But then there is another aspect decisive factor that must be kept in mind: public contributions over 100 thousand euros destined for organizations could be in the thousands. How would real control be possible if the ministry had to mobilize thousands of officials to be assigned to individual audit panels?”