Between “delays in spending by the socio-health districts, lack of intervention by the region and superficiality of the competent ministry, which has approved guidelines that do not meet the criteria established by the ministry itself, Sicily risks losing national funding for social policies for the three-year period 2022/2024 and subsequent ones. In this context, the advent of differentiated autonomy would make the welfare system in our region even more fragile or even non-existent.“. The CGIL and SPI Sicilia denounce this in a note signed by Francesco Lucchesi and Elvira Morana (Cgil), Maria Concetta Balistreri and Pippo Di Natale (Spi)sent to the Minister of Labor and Social Policies, the President of the Region and the Regional Council.
In the absence of expense reporting on the part of social-health districts for at least the 75% “you will not be able to access funding for subsequent years – remember the note – not making the essential levels of process and system envisaged by the National Fund for combating poverty and the National Fund for non-self-sufficiency operational with the aim of standardizing the enjoyment of rights throughout the national territory“.
CGIL and SPI note the inconsistency given by the fact that “the national government legislates on the cut of transfers in the absence of the 75% reporting and at the same time provides for the preliminary definition of the Lep for differentiated autonomy. This reveals – say the exponents of CGIL and SPI – which does not take into account at all the difficulties experienced by the municipalities of our region, 147 out of 391 police stations, 69 in bankruptcy and 43 in near-failure. All as always in the silence of the regional institutions“.
CGIL and SPI Sicilia ask “the identification in a transparent and shared way of solutions to overcome the impasse that is being created and get out of the loop, to protect men, women, children, immigrants and disabled people in Sicily. The regional government – the trade unionists argue – cannot underestimate or ignore the game being played on the skin of the most vulnerable, and the risks that are run in the total disinterest of the national government“.
