14:19 Tuesday 02 July 2024
Everyone does it, from the Alps to Trinacria. While the Ministry of Economy and Finance is examining the issue of the Turin entity, a cross-section of paradoxical features is arriving in Palermo. A “non-candidate” elected president who fishes out the loser. The weight of Bonsignore
Increasingly troubled waters in the world of former banking foundations. While we wait to understand how the story will end Crt other waves seem to crash on other shores. It happens that in the land of the leopard, that which was once called Bank of Sicily Foundationwhich has long since eliminated the reference to the credit institution from which it originates, is now also losing what, for decades, was its regional dimension, becoming increasingly confined within the Sicilian capital.
Not only are the members of the bodies increasingly an expression of the Norman city, but the main interests have been circulating in the living rooms of Palermo for some time now. After the era of Prof. Giovanni Puglisi, at the helm of the Foundation for over ten years, in 2016 the reins passed to the lawyer Raffaele Bonsignore, in whose mandate he distinguished himself in the organization of events and exhibitions in the sumptuous buildings of the institution. But Bonsignore’s season, like all of them, came to an end last May, and so the Sicily Foundation has started a new course, with the presidency of the professor Maria Concetta Christmas.
In reality, the only new thing that seems to have happened is the way in which the long meeting of the governing body (which in the Sicilian foundation is called the Superior Council and is made up of 13 members) was conducted, which, according to those in the know, was characterised by various suspensions, requests to send the minutes to the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, rejection of the vice-president proposed by the new president, and after more than a month we are still far from approving the minutes and verifying the qualifications of the members.
The same session that led to the election of art historian Di Natale took place in a climate that was anything but serene, with work suspensions and dramatic turns of events. After an initial interruption, necessary to photocopy and distribute the curricula vitae of the councilors to the members of the Superior Council, as requested by Angel Attaguilea politician from the Northern League who described himself as a “representative of the Ministry of Economy and Finance”, Bonsignore is said to have proposed as his successor Guido Gianferrara as a “solution of continuity”, having been until a few weeks before the secretary general of the foundation under his mandate. According to the insider at that point, councilor Attaguile would have asked to proceed with the secret ballot, justifying the request with precise “instructions from the Ministry of Economy and Finance” that he would have received. A procedure that, although unprecedented in the history of the foundation, whose presidents have always been elected by open ballot or by acclamation, is approved with 7 votes in favor and 6 against, forcing however the councilor Ermanno Arslan, connected remotely, to renounce the vote as there were no tools to guarantee its secrecy.
In the wake of Bonsignore’s investiture, Gianferrara’s arrival at the top seemed a done deal. After having illustrated the program of her mandate and taken note of the absence of other candidates, all that remained was to wait for the counting. No one put themselves forward, no one took the floor, no debate took place, but when the count was counted, here was the surprise: she was elected with 7 votes for Di Natale against 4 for Gianferrara and one for the councilor Valeria Li Vigni.
The defeated Gianferrara does not take it well, he asks for the verbalization of Attaguile’s statements and the transmission of the minutes to the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, identifying an alleged violation of the Statute and of the rules that regulate the Foundations (which expressly exclude both that the councilors are representatives of the appointing bodies and that they can in any way influence the decisions of the bodies of the Foundations which as such are autonomous and independent). As paradoxical as it may seem, for the first time by secret ballot and majority, in the absence of debate and with a single expressed candidacy that then lost (Gianferrara), a “non-candidate” is elected at the Fondazione Sicilia. A situation that fuels suspicions about a more or less hidden “agreement” between a part of the councilors. Not like the one in Turin, even written down, but implemented in concrete terms first in the request for the voting method and then in the election of the “non-candidate” professor. Just enough time to receive the congratulations and the new president as her first act proposes Attaguile as her vice, who however is shot and leaves the session announcing appeals. After a long suspension, another dramatic turn of events: Gianferrara is unanimously elected vice president.
Having entered the conclave as Pope, Cardinal Gianferrara sealed the Bonsignore rite liturgy. The former president, in fact, continues to exercise great influence. In the last period of Bonsignore’s presidency, Di Natale was entrusted with the curation of several exhibitions organized by the Sicilia Foundation and, still under her mandate, shortly before the same professor took office in the Superior Council, she purchased, directly and through the instrumental company Sicily art and Culture, a significant number of the book containing writings in his honor (Beauty, Idea and Form. Studies in Honor of Maria Concetta Di NatalePalermo University press, 2022).
With the election, for the first time, of a woman at the top, one could actually think of a change, as the news is presented by the local newspapers; however, the first steps of the new president seem instead to confirm the continued presence of Bonsignore. Of course the former president has left, but his trusted partner, the lawyer Joseph DiCesareat the first meeting of the Board of Directors he was confirmed as deputy secretary general, thus seeing the appointment renewed that Bonsignore himself wanted in 2022 and for which he had a special fully furnished room created. The same lawyer Di Cesare is also deputy director of the instrumental company Sicily art and Culture srl, 100% owned by the Fondazione Sicilia and subject to management and coordination by the latter. But the new president did not limit herself to proposing the appointment of Bonsignore’s studio partner but also thought it a good idea to appoint the same former president of a Commission with the task of dealing with all aspects inherent to the redevelopment project of the Piazza Guzzetta area where the Fondazione Sicilia has purchased a property that will be the subject of urban redevelopment; the redevelopment project constitutes a work that is far from irrelevant, at least for the costs forecast so far that exceed 5 million.
Bonsignore’s appointment is at least questionable in light of the two-term limit established by the 2015 Acri/Mef Agreement which, “in order to ensure the replacement of the members of the bodies”, prohibits those who have held positions in the bodies of the Foundations for two consecutive terms from holding other positions in the following three years; this is especially true since the assignment given to the Commission, in addition to being extremely generic, does not distinguish between a consultative function and operational management in relation to the tasks assigned (dealing with all aspects inherent to the redevelopment project).
Life is made of coincidences and so, by pure chance, also the other partner of the Bonsignore studio, Anthony Garganoplays an important role in the Fucino Bank of which the Sicilia Foundation became a shareholder and a pact partner precisely under the Bonsignore presidency. It so happens that the secretary of the Bonsignore law firm is also the spouse of an employee of the Foundation. And again by pure chance, scrolling through the names proposed on the occasion of the renewal of the Superior Council by the designating Bodies, one also finds the lawyer. Peter Philip Canzoneri who was a collaborator of the Bonsignore firm until recently. A name that was already present in the list of those designated by the Sicily Region in 2023 together with another lawyer who was already a collaborator of the Bonsignore firm. And it is also pure coincidence that between the two presidencies of Bonsignore and Di Natale, the wife of the outgoing president also found space in the Foundation’s initiatives, contributing to the preparation of an exhibition and intervening, just a few days ago, in the presentation of the related catalogue.
(first part)
