It seems like a joke, but unfortunately it is the reality. The Municipality of Monza has found itself with a property like the Prefect’s representative villa which will hardly be able to be converted and used for a new function and will also have to pay 3.8 million euros to the State.
The mockery of the unused Prefect’s Villa
It all dates back to when Villa Fossati Lamperti in via Casati 9 was indicated as the representative seat of the Prefecture at the birth of the Province of Monza and Brianza. The Villa (used as the Prefect’s apartment and reception for the President of the Republic if he needed it) was granted in 2007 by the Municipality of Monza and a 40-year concession was established with a fee of 140 thousand euros in exchange for its modernization to representative use. In 2013, the Ministry of the Interior defined the works as 3.8 million, but then 5.9 million were spent.
«The works carried out were controlled by the Municipality and the sum identified was paid by the concessionaire – the budget councilor Egidio Longoni specified in the Municipal Council on Thursday – The 140 thousand euros per year would have been the fee, but then the Prefecture moved to via Montevecchia and on 31 January 2022 the end of the agreement was sanctioned and the property was returned”.
Early termination
Today, however, the Ministry is asking for the restitution of 3.8 million euros from the Municipality of Monza for the early termination (the works carried out should have been amortized over 40 years and the Municipality is now forced to reimburse the amount that is missing to cover the total cost of the renovation intervention which was paid by the State).
Now two million will be given and 1.8 million will be held pending appraisal. «Thanks to the mayor’s intermediation we are working to avoid recognizing the entire sum», admitted Longoni.
Even the possibility of putting the property up for auction remains unlikely.
Outrage in the city council
The disdain of the City Council was unanimous, even if the opposition abstained (only Paolo Piffer of Civicamente voted against) and the majority voted in favor, with this motivation expressed by the group leader Angelo Imperatori (Pd): «The money that we put them in responsibly and we are taking them away from the community, we vote in favor because we know that it could not have been done otherwise.”
Adding insult to injury because – as Longoni recalled – «the central State Administrations owe several sums to the Municipality of Monza, for example the over 13 million euros in expenses related to the Courts (judicial expenses that we have shouldered with staff over time ) never regained”.
Meanwhile, MonzAttiva municipal councilor Sergio Visconti has asked for the residence’s surrounding wall, damaged last year by the fall of a tree, to be repaired. «We are at the point where there is the determination to identify the company that will restore the wall in via Ampere and I hope that the work can begin by mid-June», promised Longoni.
