The Municipality of Andria risks losing funding of around 850 thousand euros intended for the upgrading or construction of dog shelters, because the maximum 12 months to start the interventions have passed. This was learned from a note from the Department for Internal and Territorial Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior. The Federician body obtained the funds (858,124.36 euros) following the ministerial decrees of 16 November 2021 and 30 May 2022, money for “interventions to bring dog shelters whose structures do not comply with building regulations into compliance , health and administrative”. Despite the funds already obtained, on March 14th, the municipality of Andria asked the ministerial offices if there was the possibility of being assigned further funds, around 440 thousand euros, to be added to the 850 thousand euros already obtained, always with the aim of being able to guarantee the compliance with the requirements and parameters imposed by the regional law regarding dog shelters, but above all to cover the costs of the project proposed by the municipality in 2021 for a total amount of 1,160,000 euros. However, the Ministry’s Department for Internal and Territorial Affairs has communicated to the Municipality of Andria that the request for further funds cannot be accepted. In the same note it is also noted that the Federician institution has not respected the terms of use of the financing, as 12 months have passed since obtaining the funds without having yet started the tender procedure for the assignment of the works. For this reason, the Central Directorate of Local Finance (related to the Department for Internal and Territorial Affairs) has announced that it will now evaluate whether to activate the procedure for revoking the contribution. The municipality of Andria had already obtained 10% of the total sum to carry out at least the first step of the process. Losing the funding would be a severe blow for an important city like Andria which, even today, does not have a municipal structure used as a dog shelter.
