Can’t the position of sole director be held by a pensioner? Instead Poidomani remains. The suspended competitions, at the limit of the Barbine figure? Shrugs: more will be made. Are you wasting? No, on the contrary: it will be savings. The in house providing company? It’s the best formula.
Regardless of the criticisms leveled on multiple fronts, the leaders of Iblea Acque carry on. Two years after the birth of the company which incorporated the fourteen acronyms that initially managed the water service (those of each of the twelve municipalities and the two industrial areas), the Spa continues in the mission entrusted to it by the Iblean municipalities: managing public water in the province of Ragusa.
Cracks
Some cracks emerge from the corporate structure. No one can get out of it, but the municipality of Vittoria, one of the major adherents before the notary, faced with the evident slowness in the take-off of Iblea Acque, decided weeks ago on the temporary return to municipal management, while the mayor of Acate, Gianfranco Fidone, elected last year, does not hide its allergy towards the choice to entrust the integrated water service without a public tender. “With its share of 3.35%, Acate would certainly not have been decisive in identifying the methods of managing the service, but it is certain that I would have fought strenuously to avoid a choice which is, in my opinion, absolutely illogical and which I do not agree with, but which I found myself having to endure as a newly elected mayor a year ago – claims Fidone -. Outsourcing the service, rather than setting up Iblea Acque, would have meant relying on operators and companies that have structured know-how and, above all, solid economic foundations capable of facing the management challenge. Not only. With the utmost respect for the positions of others, I expressed formal dissent on the conferability of the role of sole director to a retired individual, on competitions and on the methods of exercising similar control. Nothing to note about the figure of the sole administrator or the technicians hired, who are excellent professionals and with whom we collaborate profitably every day: But as a legal practitioner who deals with public administration by profession, you can never give acquiescence on the conferment of assignments which, in my humble opinion, appear illegitimate”. Ragusaoggi.it collected Fidone’s statement a few weeks ago, when Acate was in full crisis which left 500 families without water for several days, which was then resolved.
Cga
Alongside these doubts and many others, a date is approaching that could turn everything upside down. The hearing of the Administrative Justice Council of Sicily on the appeal presented by Ireti Spa, a private company that participated in the first public notice on the management of the water service in the Ragusa area, has been scheduled for December 11th, precisely regarding the legitimacy of the subsequent decision of the direct assignment to Iblea Acque. A choice which, those against it point out, would lead to delays and economic losses.
Money and delays
Iblea Acque was established with 97 thousand euros of share capital, considered too little to start a company of this scale. According to the most critics, the company would have accumulated millions of debts, also due to the failure to transfer the electricity meters necessary to get the water from private wells to the tanks and then to the water pipes. A well owner told ragusaoggi.it that he was waiting for the payment of over 100 thousand euros in invoices issued. The municipality sends him back to Iblea Acque and vice versa. “I’m turning to the lawyer,” he says irritably.
Noticeable delays are also noted in the requests of individual citizens for connection, such as that gentleman from Ispica who applied last November and received water in May.
Meanwhile in Ragusa
One of the fiercest opponents of the current management of Iblea Acque is Gaetano Mauro, municipal councilor in Ragusa among the Generazione benches. Mauro announced the presentation of a second complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office. “The appointment of Franco Poidomani as sole director is illegitimate – he claims -. Not only. After the Sicilian Region reported the mayors of the province to the Court of Auditors at the end of February for the appointment of Poidomani with a position, paid with a gross salary of 95 thousand euros per year (here), because ‘it is prohibited for public administrations grant positions in the governing bodies of the companies controlled by them to individuals who are already retired private or public workers if not free of charge and these provisions also apply to public companies and entities subject to control and supervision by the Region’, the same Poidomani entrusted a lawyer with an opinion on the legitimacy of his own appointment. It seems absurd to me and a waste of public money.” Mauro points the finger at 11 of the 12 Iblei mayors. “With the exception of Fidone, who not surprisingly is a lawyer expert in administrative law, they stand firm in the face of the obvious failure of the Spa.”
Last in order of time, Cisal Federenergia of Ragusa requested the suspension of the documents regarding the fixed-term hiring of six units, plus the cancellation of hirings scheduled for 2024 and to review those already adopted.
The Iblea Acque website is clearly out of order. The section on transparent, mandatory administration does not contain a single communication. The little news is limited to providing limited information to users.
The defence
So far all those reported to the competent bodies for the control of public affairs have had no effect. In fact, Bartolo Giaquinta, mayor of Giarratana and member of the Iblea Acque control committee, starts from this assumption. “How come all these documents of alleged illegitimacy were taken into consideration, but they did not determine anything?” he asks. “The truth is that everything was archived, nothing strange or illegitimate was detected. No act by Iblea Acque has been rejected so far.”
Giaquinta admits the delays in starting the management – “impossible to replace the local water companies in such a short time”, he explains – however we can now glimpse the work carried out in recent months. “Today the company has 96 employees, coming from municipalities and industrial areas, out of the 205 expected, with high professionalism who act in real time when faced with needs – continues Giaquinta -. It has opened offices in all municipalities, even if some are open on alternate days. Investments show the fruit of a lot of work. The technical staff will manage the 40 million allocated to the Ragusa and Vittoria purifiers. Iblea Acque has had three other loans approved for projects in Modica, Ragusa and Santa Croce Camerina; submitted reports to the regional Civil Protection to reactivate 28 wells. When someone mentions the failure to accept projects in the PNRR area, I remember that the company was just starting out, obtaining a low score. The ranking will probably change, in which case we will be able to carry out other projects.”
Regarding bills, Giaquinta states: “No one says that thanks to Iblea Acque there will be a saving of at least 15 million euros on electricity spending, thanks to the public auction between energy suppliers. Citizens who will have bills centered more on actual water consumption will benefit.”
