The Mayor of Marsala, Massimo Grillo, in a note, confirms his administration’s decision to leave the tourist promotion district of the province of Trapani. From now on, therefore, the Municipality of Marsala will act alone, although, in reality, many private individuals in Marsala have joined the same district. The Mayor believes that he can do better, and with less. With the branch councilor, Salvatore Agate, he speaks of “obvious shortcomings and lack of tangible results”
“Given the huge sums paid by the municipalities of the province, we have on several occasions reported a lack of tangible results from the District’s action – they declare -. Despite our repeated attempts to start a discussion with the District’s leaders we were forced to confront with a wall of silence, that is, having to suffer the choices of the district’s top management blindly, without any possibility of a more shared and prudent action on spending even through a more rational orientation of resources. Yet we were only asking for clarity in the management of huge sums paid by participating municipalities and greater sharing of programs and prospects”
The two continue, attacking, without ever naming her, the president of the district, Rosalia D’alì, who is also a councilor in Trapani: “From this arises the profound perplexity regarding the management of the District which, in our opinion, needs to be entrusted to an expert governance in the tourism sector, capable of intercepting external funding. A governance which in our opinion, for obvious reasons, is not appropriate to be entrusted to those who already hold administrative positions in one of the cities belonging to the same district. Perplexities shared by several participating municipalities and confirmed by a resolution of the Court of Auditors which, with respect to the management of the District, writes: “The Board represents that, from the control of the foundation in question, significant doubts emerge regarding the economic and financial situation of the same ”. The Court itself, in fact, underlines that “a “regular” contribution to cover the losses that the foundation incurs to guarantee its economic-financial balance, which otherwise cannot be safeguarded, is not compatible” with the nature of the District, which should aim to financial and managerial autonomy. A resolution in which the Court goes so far as to highlight the lack of transparency in the management of the District, denouncing that “In response to an express request from the investigating magistrate, the body did not clarify the remuneration of the Coordinator of the Technical Committee and the Auditor, nor how much amounts to the total sums paid to the foundation bodies in 2019”.
“Finally, let us remember – they conclude – that the administration inherited a debt of 183,000.00 euros because the sums then allocated by the city council for the tourist district were “distracted” to other purposes. As a result, we have made the decision to withdraw from the District. Aware that investments must first be oriented towards the best positioning of the Citta di Marsala brand and at the same time other relationships must be consolidated with other tourist attractor municipalities and other DMOs existing in other territories for an exchange of experiential activities and common programming. A decision that was also shared by other Municipalities, such as that of Favignana, with which we have started a fruitful process of sharing tourist communication strategies. Furthermore, during the year just ended, our Administration established and convened the Tourism Council for the first time, with the aim of sharing decisions and visions with sector operators. Operators who in various meetings we informed about the determination to leave the district, justifying the reasons”.
Tags: Tourism Marsala Mayor Grillo leaves District
