CREMONA – The Cremonese must return over one million and 700 thousand euros of Covid funds to the State. In fact, four years after the pandemic which also put the coffers of the Municipalities in difficulty, the feared recount has arrived: the Ministry of the Interior, in concert with the Ministry of the Economy, calculated the presumed excess resources received from the local authorities. Which in most cases have already spent them on refreshments for citizens and traders, as well as to replenish the lost revenue of the period and to purchase the devices necessary to guarantee sanitation and protection.
Now that masks and limitations are over, the Provinces, the Unions and above all the Municipalities are therefore called upon to return what are defined as ‘surplus’ in four years. And there is very little (if any) room for disputes. The cold shower is the result of a very complicated calculation, which also takes into account the administration surpluses from the years before 2020. The local response is of little concern for the Unions: they have to make a total of 85 thousand euros, but in fact the largest figure is 52,498 euros and will have to be paid out by ‘Terre di Cascine’ (Castelverde and Pozzaglio).
An intensive care unit during the Covid emergency
The Province of Cremona does not have to pay anything, while for the capital municipality the bill is quite high: against a Covid ‘fund’ which in the two-year period 2020-2021 was around 6 million euros, around 357 thousand euros will have to be repaid. Speaking of the other two main centers in Cremona, we find two completely different situations: Crema has no surplus, while Casalmaggiore does and it amounts to around 101 thousand euros. Among the Lombardy capital municipalities, Cremona is one of those that must return the highest amount: only Bergamo precedes it with 834,634 euros, while Pavia is in third place with 185,322 and Lodi in fourth with 61,682 euros.
The metropolitan city of Milan follows a separate count and must repay 11 million and 673 thousand euros. All the high capital cities, according to the ministry, had no surplus. The situation is different for the Lombardy provinces: the negative record is that of Sondrio which will have to repay around 863 thousand euros, while that of Como around 241 thousand. In the end, Italian local authorities will have to return around 260 million euros to the State overall and in some cases the recount almost makes you smile. It happens, for example, in a town in the Piacenza area just across the Cremonese border: the municipality of Villanova sull’Arda (about 1,700 inhabitants) will have to donate 24 euros to the state, in four installments of six euros each.
FOUR YEARS TO PAY THE AMOUNT DUE
Among the capital cities of Lombardy, Cremona is one of those that must return the highest figure: 357,614 euros of surplus against a fund that in the two-year period in question (2020/2021) was over six million. The Budget Councilor, Maurice Manzi, explains: «As complex as the calculation is, in our case the figure is essentially the result of what according to the Government was an overestimate of the reduction in revenue from proceeds linked to violations of the Highway Code. In essence, also given the lockdown periods when no one was circulating, we had made an estimate of reduction which the State reduced by 25%. But the leftovers from the years preceding the pandemic also factor into the complicated calculation.”
Maurizio Manzi
The reaction: «You ask me if there is bitterness about this measure? More than anything – is the councilor’s response – surprise. But I want to make a clarification…”. Here she is: “This fact will not create problems for the Municipality’s budgets. Also because the amount will be divided into four years and is equivalent to around 90 thousand euros per year». Manzi also anticipates the response to any controversies: «Having to pay sums, an aspect that we have in common with many Italian municipalities, does not mean at all that we have mismanaged the Covid funds. In a period in which, I remember, all local authorities were understandably confused, there could also be some incorrect allocation. But I reiterate that the calculation also takes into consideration antecedent and independent factors.”
VIRTUOUS EXAMPLE CREAM
by Stefano Sagrestano
CREAM – The Municipality has proven virtuous in managing Covid funds. He won’t have to repay even a cent to Rome. It means that in organizing the investments between 2020 and 2022, the correct procedures were followed and the ministerial recount found no inconsistencies. All procedures had been followed from the beginning by the Budget Councilor, Cynthia Fountainin office during the second term of Stefania Bonaldiconcluded in June 2022, and then confirmed by the current mayor Fabio Bergamaschi. Among the first changes introduced for this purpose in the 2020 financial document was the one amounting to a total of 477,800 euros. What had entered the public coffers was immediately spent. The largest item was represented by the sum of 182,835 euros, determined by the government’s food solidarity fund.
Cinzia Fontana
A contribution that the Municipality had committed to provide shopping vouchers to needy families living in the city. Concessions that continued in the following months and in 2021, taking advantage of other tranches of government contributions. In that year, for example, a further 144 thousand euros had been allocated to help citizens in difficulty due to the economic crisis caused by Covid 19. They had no longer been allocated only to the purchase of food, but above all for the payment of rental and domestic utilities. The contributions have always been given on a non-repayable basis. Furthermore, between 2020 and 2021 a series of ad hoc tenders were issued to support businesses, the trade, craft and industrial sectors. A series of one-off non-repayable contributions were also allocated to micro companies and freelancers, again to try to guarantee relief to those who had suffered economic damage caused by the Covid-19 emergency. One of the initiatives had seen 400 thousand euros put on the table.
MADIGNANO BLASTED BY OVER 180 THOUSAND EUROS
MADIGNANO – «Faced with this request for reimbursement there is great bitterness, but we cannot do otherwise. In the Covid era we did our best, guaranteed benefits and spent the funds on important interventions, I’m thinking for example of an innovative ventilation system for public schools. Now we find ourselves having to repay 110 thousand euros more than the 81 thousand that we had set aside, knowing from the beginning that we would have to return something to Rome.” The mayor of Madignano Elena Festari he doesn’t hide his disappointment at what is happening. Yesterday, you carried out some checks with the Municipality’s accounting office and it appears that the amount to be reimbursed is even higher than the 181 thousand euros proposed by the ministry.
Elena Festari
191 thousand will come out of the municipal coffers. The Municipality is the second in the province of Cremona in terms of sum to be repaid, based on calculations by the Ministries of the Interior and Economy. «They claimed that we were guaranteed more money than we were able to spend during Covid – concludes the mayor –: in reality from the accounts in our possession we had invested everything, except 81 thousand euros which we set aside, knowing that from Rome they would arrived to request a refund. Since our Municipality has a very high administrative surplus, based on the calculations made by the ministry, they ask us to repay an additional 110 thousand euros. However, there is no problem, we will change the budget in the council meeting on Monday. The additional funds to be returned to Rome will be paid over five years, without interest. In the meantime we will bind them, so that they remain used exclusively for this purpose.”
Filippo Bongiovanni
CASALMAGGIORE, BONGIOVANNI: «WE EXPECTED IT»
by Davide Bazzani
CASALMAGGIORE – «We have spent everything that had a specific destination dictated by the Government», says the mayor of Casalmaggiore, Philip Bongiovanni. «Some funds were contributions in case no revenue from taxes or duties had arrived, i.e. lack of revenue due to the crisis. But basically here in Casalmaggiore in the end the citizens paid the taxes, even in ’20 and ’21. So the Government asked all the Municipalities for those funds back. It’s a complex discussion. However, this is not a lack of spending or a waste. We had already set aside this money, or rather a little more, because we knew that this decree had to come out of the Government, already settled with the report on Thursday evening in the Council”.
Matteo Priori
PIADENA DRIZZONA RUNNING FOR COVERAGE IN TIME: «FUNDS SET FORTH»
PIADENA DRIZZONA – «Luckily we have the financial resources to meet government requests» says the mayor Matteo Priori. «I must acknowledge – continues the mayor – the foresight of our former head of the Accounting sector, Mirella Pasi, who retired a few months ago, who at the time, prudentially, insisted that a restricted provision of surplus be made for the possible return of those funds. It was an absolutely appropriate decision, given how things then turned out. We are talking about 161 thousand euros, which is certainly not a small amount. We put them aside for a long time.”
Tags: Covid funds heavy #bill million returned
