“Many citizens and many Ferrarese who live in other regions and other parts of the world they expressed their desire to us to be able to help support our healthcare system, in this moment of emergency, with a small or large donation. Because of this we have decided to activate, as a Municipality, a current account post office dedicated to collection funds that we will donate to the hospital for the coverage of urgent expenses related to the Coronavirus emergency”. They are words of mayor of Ferrara, Alan Fabbri.
It was the March 18, 2020. It was in flood pandemic from Coronavirus. In those days Italian hospitals were crying out for help. The Ferrara hospital also opened a fast line for donations to allow all citizens to donate what they could as a “gesture of closeness to our staff who today, more than ever, are engaged in a very tough battle demonstrating commitment and self-denial for emergency management”.
The next day too Alan Fabbri launched un appeal And he activated a postal current account with the details for donations dedicated to Coronavirus solidarity, available to citizens and associations.
“All together – he stated – we can make a difference in this emergency situation which puts the entire national health system to the test.” The postal current account was registered in the name of the Municipality of Ferrara – Treasury Service. For payments to the city hospital it was necessary to enter “Coronavirus Covid 19 Emergency” as the reason. The number was 13681440. The alternative provided by the mayor was to make a bank transfer to the coordinates: IT 78 V 07601 13000 000013681440.
Almost 50 thousand euros arrived in those two current accounts activated by Fabbri. Not even a euro went to Cona.
From a request by access to documents made by our newspaper last December (and only now processed almost four months later) we learn that “the contribution of the Administration municipal in favor of the Covid departments of this company was equal to €17,046.37. The donation was used to purchase two defibrillators (Hill-Rom SpA and Nihon Kohden Italia srl)”.
But those 17 thousand euros did not come from Fabbr’s donation callthe. They were the money resulting from the strike of the municipal documents of 6 November 2020, requested by the public function of CGIL, CISL and UIL.
THE unions asked the Municipality to allocate donate to the Covid departments of the Hospital Company and the Local Health Authority of Ferrara the sum corresponding to the cost savings deriving from the salaries not paid to the employees who had joined the strike. The result was a sum of 34,094 euros which was divided equally between the two healthcare companies. As mentioned, the hours of workers’ strike allowed Cona to purchase two defibrillators.
AND What happened to the money donated by the citizens of Ferrara at the public invitation of the mayor?
In the “Transparency” section of the website of the Municipality of Ferrara you can find the entry corresponding to “report of fundraising to support the fight against the epidemiological emergency from Covid-19″.
The collection is between the dates April 2020 and March 2022. The current account used is the postal one indicated by the mayor 13681440. In total, 47,936 euros of donations arrived. Of these there were almost 50 thousand euros 18,775 spent. But for the needs of the Municipality of Ferrara and not of Cona’s doctors, nurses and health workers.
The report speaks of 8,750 euros spent to purchase 350 packs of rapid tests from the F Medical company of Ferrara. Another 6815 euros went to the Luana Confezioni company in Fiscaglia for masks. 1,127 went to the Centro di Medicina Ferrara srl for quick swabs. Finally, six purchases were made at the Centro di Medicina spa company in Villorba (in the province of Treviso). The facility received the sums of 1437, 221, 165, 25, 73 and 162 euros to purchase swabs for its employees.
From the count carried out by the municipal offices approximately 30 thousand euros are missing, the destination of which is not known. Under no circumstancesin any case, money of liberal donations they went to the beneficiary desired by the donorsthe Covid departments of the Cona hospital.
