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The Region has placed 147 Sicilian municipalities under commissionership who did not approve the 24-26 budget estimates by the already extended deadline. The intervention of councilor Messina.
Last May 6, the regional department for Local Authorities invited non-compliant Municipalities and Provinces to approve the 2024-2026 budget estimates. Based on data updated to May 6, the financial planning document was approved by 143 administrations, or 35 percent of the total. After having granted an extension in the previous weeks to comply with legal obligations, the department warned the entities, informing that the procedure for appointing commissioners was already at a very advanced stage and the replacement intervention by the Region would be imminent.
Well now here is the epilogue of the warning: 147 Sicilian municipalities have been placed under commissioners who have not yet approved the 2024/2026 budget forecast. The councilor for Local Authorities, Andrea Messina, signed the provisions appointing the ad acta commissioners who will have to adopt the economic planning tool. This is a necessary and obligatory replacement intervention by the Region when the approval of the budget by the Municipal Council allows the Municipalities to authorize expenses and plan the activities and services to be offered to their citizens over the three-year period.
And the councilor Andrea Messina comments: “The appointment of the ad acta commissioners is the extreme act to which we had to resort after having attempted, in all possible ways, to stimulate the Municipalities to adopt the budget estimates with the ordinary procedures, or through the proposal of the Executive and the approval of the Council. The deadlines set by the law have been largely exceeded and, with them, also the additional window that we have set up through the Department offices to verify any inconsistencies between the information held by the regional administration and the actual political-administrative activity carried out. Citizens deserve respect and efficient services” – concludes Messina.
Before taking office, the commissioners will once again ascertain the status of the proceedings and, only in the event of verified non-compliance, will they take office with the legitimacy to carry out all the activities required by law for the approval of the budgets, replacing the non-compliant bodies and requesting, where missing, the opinion of the economic-financial audit body.
It is a script that repeats itself: apart from some virtuous exceptions, among the 391 Municipalities in Sicily the vast majority do not present the expenditure forecast budget within the deadline imposed by law, i.e. (in 2024) 15 March. It often happens that the document that provides for the movements of the Municipality’s cash register is approved in November if not in December. And obviously it is a paradox, an absurdity, because rather than a forecast it is a final budget, which also limits and undermines the role of the City Council, which should have debated and evaluated the expenditure forecast before the vote, and which instead near New Year’s Eve he is only responsible for voting on the budget ‘with his eyes closed’ before drinking a “bitter” glass of champagne.
Angelo Ruoppolo (Teleacras)
