CATANIA – The investigation by the Catania Prosecutor’s Office into the management of waste linked to the Rap companies of Palermo and on the sites of the Avalanche d’inverno and Tiritì dell’Oikos landfills has reached its final phase. The magistrates had the Carabinieri of Noe and the military of the Judicial Police Section notify 32 people of a notice of conclusion of the investigation, hypothesizing, in various capacities, crimes of abuse in the management, treatment and disposal of hundreds of thousands of tons of waste. Among those under investigation are the entrepreneurs of Oikos spa Orazio and Domenico Proto, the head of the regional civil protection department Salvatore Cocina, in his capacity as general manager of the Waste Management Plant Authorizations service, some then managers and technicians of Rap, the then mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, and two of his councilors who succeeded one another for the Environment: Sergio Marino and Giusto Catania. Also under investigation are the manager of the Environment service of the Municipality of Palermo, Francesco Fiorino, and also the three commissioners appointed by the prefect of Catania for the management of the Oikos landfills, in office from 19 December 2014 to 3 February 2017: Maurizio Cassarino, Riccardo Tenti and Stefano Scammacca.
According to a charge, undifferentiated urban waste was taken from the Palermo RAP to landfills managed by Oikos and not as a dry fraction, as expected, due to the inadequacy and inefficiency of the fixed mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plants. and mobile in use in the Bellolampo landfill. The transfer would have taken place to deal with the waste emergency in Palermo and in the municipalities of the district and this, according to the accusation, allowed the two companies to “achieve huge profits”.
“It will be my duty to clarify – commented Leoluca Orlando – the legitimacy of the activity I carried out as mayor who had to face an emergency caused by the absence of a regional waste plan and public systems and specifically by the delays on the part of the region in the construction of tank under its jurisdiction in Bellolampo despite warnings and requests from the municipal administration”.
According to the former mayor, the investigation “is an opportunity to reiterate and highlight the unsustainable situation of the absence of public systems and the presence of private oligopolies chosen by the Region which I have formally and repeatedly denounced”. A spotlight was also turned on by the Prosecutor’s Office on the executive project for the expansion of the Oikos landfills in which a manager and an official of the Region, Natale Zuccarello and Gianfranco Cannova, according to the accusation, “failed to carry out checks on the leachate plant”, authorizing “illegal management in the presence of design deficiencies”. The magistrates had requested personal measures against some suspects and the seizure of the assets of the two companies under investigation, which however the investigating judge rejected. The Prosecutor’s Office has partially appealed against this decision, asking the court to reform the investigating judge’s decision, ordering the seizure of the assets of the Palermo Rap and the Oikos and the consequent appointment of administrators.
