BARI – Even before the Taranto Finance Department dealt with the case of Osmairm (the rehabilitation center in Laterza attributable to the wife of the Tourism Councilor, Gianfranco Lopane), the Bari Finance Department was already working on the – broader – topic of accreditations and the (alleged) lack of controls. The management of the social and health system is a weakness of the Region, and is the subject of judicial checks. It all began with the transmission to the Prosecutor’s Office (in reality, to all the Apulian Prosecutor’s Offices) of the report with which the then coordinator of the Nirs, Antonio La Scala, had photographed the state of the preparatory checks for accreditation on facilities for the elderly and disabled. A report from which high levels of irregularities emerged, mainly referring to formal aspects.
For this reason, in recent months the Finance Department has acquired documentation at the headquarters of the Health department. In addition to the report prepared on the data communicated by the individual local health authorities relating to the checks, these are the regulations that describe the issuing of authorizations and accreditation (i.e. the “permission” to work on behalf of the national health system). An in-depth analysis that serves to understand on the one hand whether the rules have been respected, on the other whether the critical issues detected in the checks carried out by the local health authorities’ prevention departments have then been remedied.
It is in this context that the financiers listened to the regional councilor Antonio Tutolo (Misto group) as a person informed on the facts. During the hearings in the Second Commission, in June 2023, the Lucerino councilor had ordered the transmission of the Nirs report to the competent prosecutor’s offices for the territory. The activity of the Inspectors’ Unit, which began in March 2023, had found that 79% of accredited private socio-health facilities (from RSAs to day centres) appear to have “deficiencies in relation to organizational requirements” but despite this they obtained a favorable opinion by the prevention departments of the local health authorities for accreditation purposes. In the meantime, the situation has evolved, in the sense that the checks have continued, any irregularities have been contested and a deadline has been given to remedy them. The Region has also ordered the forfeiture of some accreditations due to lack of requirements.
The investigation by the Taranto Prosecutor’s Office into Osmairm always concerns accreditation, but has at its core a different profile compared to controls. At the center are in fact the methods of reimbursement of the rehabilitation services provided by the Laerto center, and of the certifications presented to the Local Health Authority of Taranto. The Finance Department, delegated by prosecutor Lucia Iscari, wants to verify its legitimacy and for this reason has acquired copies of the contracts.
