“At the end of this electoral mandate we were ‘vague’, doing research on issues that the outgoing Administration dealt with when managing public money. Issues that concern the handling of large sums of public money. We were intrigued, in particular, by two issues or aspects that the De Vincenzi Administration has managed and still continues to manage; the first of which is the festival, the celebration, or whatever you prefer, the ‘mangeria’ (in the sense of ‘great uninterrupted eating’) of sweets & similar which is held every year in mid-September, that is: ‘Dolcissima Pietra’ , a sweet-culinary event, proposed in 2004 by Mayor De Vincenzi and, according to what he told the council at the time, of which the writer was a member, baptized with this same name by himself. This confectionery event, which usually lasts two days a year, sees the participation of stall holders who come from all over and who, to participate, obviously have to pay a fee. A fee which, however, is not paid to the Municipality, which therefore does not even determine the amount, but rather to the private company to which the Municipality itself entrusts the organization of the event. We were not able to find out how much this amount corresponds to, but it would appear to be not insignificant“.
This was stated by Mario Carrara, mayoral candidate in Pietra Ligure at the helm of the “Independent List for Pietra”.
“What, however, is clear from the investigation carried out, is constituted by the elements taken from the municipal documents which are public, available to everyone and, even more so, to the municipal councilors elected by the citizens who, from them, receive a power of control over the public documents themselves – Carrara continues – The first macroscopic fact that emerges is that since the first edition of the event in 2004, it has always been entrusted to the same pool of people, as well as, in the last five years, always to the same private company. In the year 2019, for 30 thousand euros, In the year 2020, for 35 thousand euros. In the year 2021, for a total of 45 thousand euros. In the year 2022, for a total of 40 thousand euros. In these aforementioned years, the assignment was carried out directly, by private negotiation. There was never a tender. Nor, as far as we have been able to learn, would there be any public tender, so that those interested could express their interest in being asked to participate in a possible tender to express a better offer. The direct award, without tender, it must be said, was carried out, as can be read from a decision: ‘Considering that the proposed event retains characteristics of exclusivity and uniqueness, for which it is possible to proceed through direct award’ and also for the fact that, being under a certain sum, direct assignment, without a tender, according to the decisions seen, was possible. However, in the last year 2023, the assignment, in any case always carried out to the same private company, was no longer done through a direct negotiation between the Municipality and the private company itself, but, this time, through the ‘Single Central of commission’. Which has had beneficial effects for the municipal coffers because we have gone from the previous 40/45 thousand euros to the last 17 thousand 800 euros in total. Could such a drastic decrease in credit costs have been due to an equally strong general decrease in costs and prices? Or, why did the different procedures of the ‘Single Purchasing Centre’ allow these notable savings? We do not know. But we ask ourselves and ask the question, which first and foremost should be asked to Mayor De Vincenzi, given that ‘Dolcissima Pietra’ would be his ‘creature’, for which, it is well known, he would follow every detail of its staging . And then, to the Tourism Councilor Daniele Rembado, who has been following the ‘tourism and entertainment’ sector for ten years and should also monitor its progress and procedures“.
“There is also something to say – continues the mayoral candidate – and the detail is no small one, that the same private company organizing ‘Dolcissima Pietra’, as we learn from the content of a document, has even registered the trademark, thus making it become its own event ‘. We ask ourselves how it was possible that the Municipality, which started this demonstration in 2004, was dispossessed of it in this way, without reacting? Or, contrary to what has always been believed, in 2004, when De Vincenzi included ‘Dolcissima Pietra’ in the calendar of tourist events, had his trademark already been registered by the same company that would then always physically organize it? We don’t know and we can’t answer. However, he, Luigi De Vincenzi, who should be well versed in the issue, could answer this same question, also because, we seem to remember that, in 2019, when he announced his return to the field to participate in the municipal elections, he chose the Pietra headquarters of the same private company that organizes ‘Dolcissima Pietra’ to announce its candidacy for mayor in a press conference. Something he should know“.
“To the decisions regarding the assignment of the organization of the event, for each edition of the event, others must be added which involve financial commitments by the Municipality for various events such as singing, musical, sporting events, conferences, conventions, etc., which, unlike of the organizing company which never changes, however, as regards the authors and performers, they continually change from edition to edition of the same. Therefore, from the data we were able to find, these total sums would appear, year by year: in 2019, ‘Dolcissima Pietra’ cost 52 thousand euros; in 2020, it cost 37 thousand 500 euros; in 2021, it cost (a whopping) 80 thousand 681 euros; in 2022, it cost 50 thousand 137 euros; in 2023, costs dropped to a total of 37 thousand 666 euros. In total in these last 5 years, ‘Dolcissima Pietra’, which took place over a total of a dozen days (two and sometimes three per year), cost the Pietra taxpayer, who pays all the taxes at most, no less than 260 thousand 984 euros. Of which 170,300 to the private company that has always managed it and, until 2022, in direct assignment. If we take into account that the latter also collects tickets from participating confectionery stall holders, we can only say that this event represents good business. However, given the costs that this same event entails for the Municipality and Pietra taxpayers, rather than ‘Dolcissima’, it should be called ‘Carissima Pietra’. It would be more appropriate. Obviously, given the costs, one could well think about whether to propose it again, or, given the ‘strings and ties’ to which it is bound, such as the registered name, it could be proposed again with another name” concludes the mayoral candidate Mario Carrara, underlining again “all the data shown can be easily found on the website of the Municipality of Pietra Ligure by going to ‘transparent administration’ and clicking on determine tourism“.
