Luxembourg, the European Prosecutor’s Office investigates the ‘dam model’ of Genoa: its application for the Messina bridge is feared. Salvini: “Anac is rowing against the State”

The dossier regarding the contract for the new maxi Genoa dam arrived in Luxembourg, at the headquarters of the Eppo, i.e. the new European Public Prosecutor’s Office After that (European Public Prosecutor’s Office) and is on the table of Laura Codru?a Kövesi Eppo’s first chief prosecutor.

The competences of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office mainly concern crimes, such as fraud, corruption and money laundering, which harm the financial interests of the EU. Within this context the investigations on Pnrr they represent, at the moment, the main activity of the structure.

The investigations into the dam – as Repubblica revealed in November 2023 – are coordinated by the Italian headquarters of Eppo, which has its offices in Turin and is led by magistrate Andrea Venegoni, coming from the Court of Cassation but in the past prosecutor in Genoa.

Eppo’s attention is due to two reasons. The first is linked to the doubts, or rather to the accusations contained in the Anac resolutions, in the sentence of the TAR judges and in the Italia Nostra complaint filed last autumn by the former prosecutor of the Court of Auditors Ermete Bogetti: they concern the procedures defined as “anomalous” procurement and the economic conditions considered extremely favorable for the consortium Breakwater led by Webuild to whom the works were entrusted which, at the moment, are estimated at one billion and 300 million. But there is a second reason that worries European magistrates quite a bit. The “dam model” could also be applied to the contract for bridge over the Strait of Messina. Strongly supported by the Minister of Infrastructure Matteo Salvini which plans to entrust it with a procedure in derogation to the Eurolink consortium, with Webuild as the new group leader.

L’Anacas reported yesterday by our newspaper, concluded its two-year investigations with a 50-page resolution in which it contests Port Authority and Commissioner for the dam, the procedures followed (or rather not followed) for the assignment of the contract, as well as the possibility for Webuild to automatically obtain variations, with further public outlays, in relation to the easily foreseeable, according to Anac, geological problems connected to the operations of base in muddy bottoms 50 meters deep.

Exactly what is feared could happen with the Messina bridge but in this case with enormous cost increases already expected to be paid by the public coffers.

And while the Eppo magistrates work in silence on all the documents relating to the dam contract, politics is making noise after learning that Anac has forwarded its resolution to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and that of the Court of Auditors, hypothesizing criminal offenses and treasury damages from part of Port Authority and Dam Commissioner.

The reactions of politicians

On the right, the usual offensive against the “no party” begins thanks to the voice of a regional president Giovanni Toti contemptuous: «Once again a fundamental work is contested for a defect of form and not of substance. If some public official has chosen the shortest route compared to the bureaucratic loopholes that would have slowed down or even prevented the Dam, then he should be rewarded and should have everyone’s gratitude. My Liguria will always fight hypocritical form to the detriment of substance.”

On the left a chorus of indignation and condemnation rises up. «Knowing and respecting the procedures and applying them correctly is the safest and fastest way to achieve the result. Evidently Toti and Bucci, accustomed to shouting and overturning the rules, despite having been administering for many years now, have not yet learned the rules of public administration, causing damage to our territory” say the secretaries of the Ligurian and Genoese PD Davide Natale and Simone D’Angelo. 1 deputed dem Andrea Orlando and Valentina Ghio announce a question. It must be said that important exponents of the Democratic Party such as deputies Luca Pastorino and Paola De Micheli participated in the sumptuous inauguration ceremony of the construction sites – when all the details of the contract were already known.

And Salvini’s ministry attacks Anac

A statement arrives at the agencies from the Ministry of Infrastructure led by Matteo Salvini which is evidently approved by the minister himself and represents an institutional conflict: “The Genoa dam is a project that has been talked about for years and which has bipartisan sharing: the first funding are the result of Paola De Micheli (Pd) and the work was included in the Pnrr by the Draghi government. Minister Matteo Salvini, following the principles of concreteness and common sense, has done everything to speed up the process of an intervention that is fundamental for everything the country and not only for Liguria and its capital. This is also why the Anac’s stop is surprising: it is as if pieces of state were working against the national interest. All the objections raised by the National Anti-Corruption Authority are strongly contested by our offices, just think that the costs of the work have not increased and no complaints concern alleged corruption phenomena. These are simple bureaucratic observations. Salvini is ready to proceed with absolute determination, to defend Italian interests.”

Anac’s reply

“Anac does not act to block but to facilitate the implementation of the works in compliance with the law”. This is what the Anti-Corruption Authority chaired by Giuseppe Busia underlines in a note regarding the breakwater in the port of Genoa. In particular, Anac points out that checks on the work and on the critical issues that have emerged will continue from 2022, according to the procedures established by law. “The authority – we read in the note – has highlighted to the commissioner structure since 2023 the various irregularities found and the indications for improvement. The contracting authority decided to concentrate its activity on contesting Anac’s competence to intervene and defend its actions, without making any effort to resolve the highlighted problems in time. Now – continues Anac -, with resolution no. 142 Of 20 March 2024, these observations are formalized, once again not with the intention of stopping the work, whose strategic and fundamental character is not called into question, but on the contrary, precisely to avoid that this important construction could suffer blocks or delays subsequently, due to failure to comply with legal procedures, also placing Pnrr financing at risk. Anac, as always – concludes the note – does not act to block, not having the faculty or powers to do so, but to facilitate the realization of the works in due respect of legality, of the rules of transparency and competition, so as to allow intervenes in time, avoiding irregularities that may also have an impact on the disbursement of European Union funding”.