Fratelli d’Italia’s suspicions were well founded, the insurance policy that Piacenza Parcheggi presented to the organization is false. Let’s go in order. The fee owed to the Municipality by the company that manages the blue lines in the city (and which should manage the underground car park in Piazza Cittadella) has not arrived: we are talking about the 2023 fee, a figure equal to 1.2 million euros. At that point someone from the minority (in this case Fratelli d’Italia) begins to set their sights on the only protection available to the institution: an insurance policy, a guarantee stipulated by Piacenza Parcheggi with a Portuguese company precisely to guarantee payment. But after a careful analysis of the documents, the Fratelli d’Italia advisory group begins to raise some doubts about the legitimacy of the policy in question, so much so that it presents a complaint to the prosecutor’s office.
“A person was indicated as the company’s representative in Italy who had a non-existent telephone number, a non-existent website and instead of the indicated address there was a coffee shop”, explains Sara Soresi.
Confirmation arrives today. In a letter written to the mayor, Piacenza Parcheggi confirms: “The policy is fake”. Mayor Tarasconi read the letter in the city council.
The beginning of the story
It all starts with the failure to pay the fee by Piacenza Parcheggi, the company that manages the blue lines in the city. The company controlled by Filippo Lodetti Alliata has not yet paid the Municipality the 1.2 million euro fee which was due on 31 December 2022. Given the non-payment, some suggest making use of the guarantee. The insurance surety policy is a contract with which an insurance company takes charge of the commitment made by the policyholder and provided for by law or by a contract, guaranteeing the fulfillment of the agreed agreements towards the beneficiary.
Well, the surety policy appears to have been issued by a Portuguese company, Abarca Companhia de Seguros. But the city councilors of Fratelli d’Italia, Nicola Domeneghetti, Sara Soresi and Gloria Zanardi, checking the surety policy, turn up their noses, noticing some formal anomalies. Is the policy fake? So the councilors present a complaint to the prosecutor’s office. The FdI advisors go to the source and ask the insurance company for clarification directly, receiving a disturbing response: “We have learned that in Italy suretyship policies have been issued in our name, but without our consent. The policy in question was also not issued by Abarca Companhia de Seguros”.
The note and payment from Piacenza Parcheggi
At this point the Piacenza Parcheggi company itself intervenes with a press release which essentially announces: in the face of this brawl we will pay what we owe to avoid harmful exploitation.
“Reiterating the total and absolute non-involvement of the concessionary company in any fraudulent acts relating to the alleged falsity of the policy guaranteeing the concession fees, the PIACENZA PARCHEGGI SPA company, in order to avoid useless and harmful exploitation, communicates that it will immediately pay the fee relating to the year 2023 despite having already made a formal commitment with the Municipality to pay the fee itself by June 30th. This decision aims, once again, to meet the positions of the Municipal Administration and demonstrate the total groundlessness of some assertions that are read in the press relating to feared – yet non-existent – financial problems of the company, or of instrumental time delays of any kind with respect to the clear and precise contractual obligations that the company itself has signed with the Municipal Administration”.
But this immediate payment makes the minority who comment even more turn up their noses: “Why didn’t they pay earlier and on time? Where does this extension to June 30, 2024 come from?”.
Luca Zandonella (Lega)
“Let’s then draw a veil of compassion over the rest: the concessionaire is once again throwing the wool over our eyes, because declaring that it will pay the fee for 2023 is a simple contractual obligation for which, among other things, it is extremely late (the deadline was last 12/31): cannot be sold as a cure for the problems that are emerging. And at the same time, not yet knowing if and when the bankability will arrive – necessary to be able to start the project relating to the Piazza Cittadella car park – is absolutely not reassuring”.
“It is good to remember that the deadline for submitting this document was January 20th and we even reached May. In the documents exchanged between the Municipality and the concessionaire, Mr. Lodetti Alliata cited March as the month in which he could have presented the bankability. Why hasn’t it arrived yet? What are the problems in getting it? Why did several banks withdraw from the operation, as we have learned in recent weeks? In all this, we cannot understand the behavior of the Municipality, which is giving the concessionaire too much time“.
Alternative for Piacenza
“Today that the papers have ended up in the Prosecutor’s Office (ApP is the guarantor and is waiting to comment), here is the defaulting GPS, which by contract should have paid by January 31st, which at a certain point gave itself the whole of 2024, only to then correct the aim (who knows for what reason!) he announces to pay “immediately, despite having already made a formal commitment with the Municipality to pay the fee itself by next 30 June”, as stated in the note released by Piacenza Parcheggi” .
“Here, precisely this availability that has arrived “immediately”, together with the flaunting of “non-existent financial problems” is the political element, which confirms the mockery of the people of Piacenza which the majority, council and councillors, should take on, with clear words . We are faced with those who so far have not respected the agreements not out of necessity but by deliberate choice. In fact, the Municipality of Piacenza, with taxpayers’ money, acted as a bank for the private debtor. We’ll see the next episodes. Certainly no one can think that if the guarantee was truly false, the matter could be closed there just because the 2023 debt has been paid in the meantime. “Ghe che c’la strüsa”, we must listen to popular wisdom”.
The truth emerges in the city council
The debate reached the city council today. A long and very heated debate, which the mayor put an end to Katia Tarasconi who read a letter sent a few hours earlier by Piacenza Parcheggi. A letter in which the company confirms: “The suretyship policy is false”.
“As per the email communication that has just arrived from the company also attached here, the guarantee issued by us on 12-29-2022 appears not to have been issued by the Abarca Seguros insurance company and is therefore to be understood as false. We would like to reiterate that we are unaware victims of a serious and petty scam, constituting the crime of fraud and that there is no responsibility whatsoever in the matter attributable to the undersigned company, which requested the issuance of the aforementioned policy to professional brokers registered in the relevant albi and who handed it over to this reliable administration in total good faith, after having borne all the costs in full.”
“The company will immediately protect its position also from a reputational point of view in all the most appropriate judicial offices, without exception. In light of the above, we are however confirming the immediate payment of the concession fee for the 2023 financial year originally foreseen”.
Brothers of Italy to the majority: “You should apologize to us”
At that point silence falls in the city council, interrupted only by Brothers of Italy. The result is a heated confrontation between the council group and the majority. Sara Soresi declares.
“We didn’t really like the attitude you had, in the sense that when I spoke at the beginning you made us crazy. Basically you scuttled our commission and then, sorry to say, but we were right. So I don’t understand this attitude, maybe you should apologize to us and you should say thank you. In reality you are not doing this. I am happy that the truth has finally come out and I am happy because I hope that the Municipality will then be protected and this is our only interest”.
“I just want to say that it was quite obvious, we discovered that something was wrong after just three hours. There was simply a representative in Italy who had a non-existent telephone number, a non-existent website and instead of the indicated address there was a coffee shop”.
And now? Now it’s time to figure out how to behave.
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