the (resigned) mayor Gianluca Festa arrested

Two hundred thousand euros of radio spots awarded without tender to advertise the New Year’s concert. And another big event, the Eurochocolate, came under the scrutiny of magistrates for alleged irregular sponsorships. These are some of the accusations contested against the mayor of Avellino Gianluca Festawho ended up under house arrest on charges – among others – of corruption in some public contracts.

Yesterday morning the dogs of the Guardia di Finanza also entered the home of the mayor, former Democratic Party, then supported by civic lists. The carabinieri of the provincial command gave the mayor the order with which he was placed under house arrest by the investigating judge Giulio Argenio. The investigation is called Dolce Vita. For Festa (who is already accused of criminal association) the crimes of attempted undue inducement, corruption in the exercise of his function, aggravated revelation of official secrets, forgery of public documents, embezzlement, misdirection are hypothesized.

THE ACCUSATIONS
At the same time, the home of the deputy mayor Laura Nargi was also searched in the historic center of the city and her mobile phone was seized and a notice of investigation was delivered accusing her of criminal association. Also under house arrest are the architect Filomena Smiraglia, former manager of the Public Works and Productive Activities sectors of the municipality of Avellino, and the architect Fabio Guerriero, who is the owner of a company in relations with the public administration of the capital.

The investigation, which represents a development of a first line that had led to the investigation into Festa and his resignation in recent days (the municipality of Avellino has been governed by a prefectural commissioner for 48 hours), also involves the radio company Rds one of whose representatives is being investigated together with the mayor for the assignment, deemed by the magistrate to be unlawful, of services to promote the organisation’s activities. Something like two hundred thousand euros of no-bid grants to the broadcaster to publicize the New Year’s concert held in Avellino (on the Antonello Venditti stage presented by Anna Pettinelli).

Also for another big event, Eurochocolate-Avellino which took place last February during the week of Valentine’s Day in the capital of Irpinia, there is an investigation which involved an entrepreneur who manages the franchising of a large restaurant chain in Avellino. He too had participated (together with other public service concessionaires) in sponsoring the Eurochocolate event. In exchange, the mayor had promised his interest in the restaurateur’s request to pay less Tarsu, the tax for the disposal of municipal solid waste.

Not only that: suspecting an investigation, the mayor would have taken care to have his office cleaned up and the computer used daily to disappear. Finally, the investigation into public competitions. For both the role of technicians and that of traffic police, Festa had entrusted the selections to internal commissions. And the management immediately became a case when a young aspiring traffic policeman boasted that he had the answers in his pocket. The president of the commission was investigated, as was the young competitor and his father, who apparently received an envelope with the answers from the hands of the mayor himself (there is a video recorded by the police cameras). Same fate for the competitor in the selection for technical officer who was favored during the exam after the usual Festa’s recommendation.

And Avellino in the meantime comes to the attention of Parliament. «The arrest of the resigning mayor of Avellino, Gianluca Festa, comes at a time when corruption and mafia vote-swapping are the order of the day. I believe it is a terrible signal for all politics”, the president of the Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission Chiara Colosimo said yesterday to Caivano. “The anti-mafia commission – she added – is already working on a line of investigation which will also include the Avellino case”.