“A necessary premise: the attention of citizens and the participation of associations and operators in cultural policies, in the correct management and use of public resources is always positive and precious and fundamental for our administration, because we are called to respond directly and publicly for every our choice and action, and we want – and will continue to – do so in absolute transparency. For this reason, we thank the cultural supply chain for the requests addressed to us, which however deserve appropriate clarifications of a technical-administrative nature”. It starts like this Alice Amatore, Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Foggia in response to the press release from the Cultural Supply Chain which he complained about little involvement on the part of the administration, recalling some unfulfilled promises compared to the pre-election proclamations.
“As regards the activation of the tender relating to the provision of contributions for cultural activities – Amatore says -, the expected deadline was March 31st, but we were only able to approve the technical budget on March 8th, which does not include a specific item for this: consequently, we would never have been able to bring a resolution relating to the tender in question to the council, because the financial coverage would have been lacking. When we go to change the budget, it will be our concern among the first actions to reactivate the tender including summer programming, to select the activities to be included in the billboard being prepared with related contributions”.
Instead, it concerns participation, he explains: “The inclusion of the Council for Culture – and also of the Youth Forum – among the Annual Objectives of the Public Administration set in the PIAO is proof of our absolute desire to reactivate processes and organisms of stimulation and comparison. We have not yet technically managed to proceed due to some formal steps still missing (such as the commission to draw up the ad hoc regulations), but we have the draft ready and we will continue in this direction as soon as the various phases are concluded: this will be the context in which aggregate and involve professionals and institutions, an impartial body that is truly representative of the city’s over 700 cultural operators”.
Finally, the councilor concludes, “the last technical clarification concerns the concert on May 1st in Parco San Felice. The criterion followed was the involvement of the trade union organizations for the issues to be addressed and relaunched, linked to work in all its nuances and critical issues, while for the artistic aspect we decided to include as many young people as possible: the line-up of artists who will perform on stage, in fact, has an average age of 24 years. It is our political choice, also to convey and bear witness to messages and shine the spotlight on a generation marked by precariousness and the uncertainty of the future, and we claim it with pride. The accusations of favoritism are ungenerous, and very far from our work which does not and will not provide for any concessions to customers and a prudent use of public resources, which are not ‘tips’ to be given to friends of any kind”.
