The Economic – Financial Police Unit of the Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza of Vibo Valentia, together with the Judicial Police Section – G. di F. Division – of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Vibo Valentia and the Local Police of Vibo Valentia have implemented an order for the application of a personal precautionary measure and preventive seizure decree aimed at confiscation by equivalent, issued by the investigating judge of the Court of Vibo Valentia at the request of the local Public Prosecutor’s Office, against five subjects, who are accused of the crime of embezzlement . The provision ordered the precautionary measure of house arrest against two suspects and the preventive seizure of assets for an amount equal to €230,110.22.
The investigations have made it possible to ascertain how two managers of a local public service managed and financed by the Calabria Region have appropriated, over time, large sums of money – equal to the amount seized – allocating it, among other things, to their relatives through the direct assignment of tasks in clear conflict of interest, circumventing the regulatory provisions regarding access to public employment.
In particular, from the investigations carried out it emerged that, to carry out the activities connected to the implementation of the projects in which it took part, the organization has made use, over the years, not only of regularly hired staff, but also of other subjects, through self-employment contracts awarded through letters of appointment without any reference to the type of selection used and in which it was not acknowledged that the search for personnel in that specific sector had been made public. The plurality of tasks with the same content, repeatedly conferred to family members of the people affected by precautionary measures, highlights, moreover, the existence of needs that are not temporary and exceptional, but ordinary and long-lasting, with respect to which the administration should have found suitable solutions in terms of planning of personnel needs, as well as updating and training of internal professional profiles.
The analysis of the administrative documentation also made it possible to ascertain that, over the years, the institution has approved financial statements without subjecting them to the scrutiny of a specific Auditor, a figure who was never appointed. Furthermore, the financial statements appeared to be “manipulated” in order to provide false economic-financial information, through a misleading representation of the real situation.
The illicit management of public affairs, thus carried out, led to the bankruptcy of the institution which in the period examined developed a debt situation quantified at approximately 700,000.00.
