Covid card, De Luca condemned by the Court of Auditors: he will have to repay 609 thousand euros to the Region. And he: «I will challenge»

The “ante litteram” green pass costs governor Vincenzo De Luca dearly. The Court of Auditors, jurisdictional section for Campania, in partial acceptance of the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, condemned the President of the Region to compensate Palazzo Santa Lucia the sum of 609 thousand euros. Accusations dropped, however, for the co-defendants Italo Giulivo, Massimo Bisogno, Ugo Trama, Antonio Postiglione and Roberta Santaniello, for whom the panel chaired by Paolo Noviello rejected the questions proposed by the accounting prosecutor’s office. Governor De Luca was convicted because his conduct was considered to have been committed with malicewhile the remaining part of the accusations, committed with conduct characterized by gross negligence, was covered by the tax shield. The governor announces that he will appeal the sentence.

The complaint of the anti-vax lawyer

The governor Vincenzo De Luca, who on 4 August 2023 had received the invitation to deduct for alleged treasury damage The same document had been notified to Italo Giulivo, coordinator of the regional crisis unit, Antonio Postiglione, Massimo Bisogno, Ugo Trama and Roberta Santaniello, “investigated” as members of the regional crisis unit. The file was opened following the complaint presented by an anti-vax lawyer, Roberto Ionta, who asked the accounting prosecutor’s office “to start the appropriate investigations in order to evaluate the fiscal damage resulting from the expenses for the smart cards”.

Le smart card

The Campania Region’s smart cards should in fact have had the task of certifying vaccination in the phase following the introduction of the anti-Covid vaccine. On this point, however, the Court of Auditors objected that «this choice, at a territorial level, has appeared since its introduction as a “flight forward”, an encroachment of the Campania Region in clothes that are not strictly and specifically within its competence». The management of the emergency phase of the pandemic, according to the accusatory hypothesis, should have taken place at a central level. That is, in Rome and not at Palazzo Santa Lucia. The invitation to deduce was therefore based, again according to the prosecutors, «on the precise reconstruction of all the phases that led to the expenditure of over 3 million euros for the purchase and distribution of vaccination certification cards».

Accounting judges

The Region had officially adopted the provision on 5 February 2021, when the government had not yet introduced the Green pass, but “it is also true – wrote the Court of Auditors in the investigation documents – that the national legislator had already set up a system, hierarchical and pyramidal, for the management of the pandemic”. In other words, «the acts of the territorial autonomies had to be adopted in execution or in line with the prescriptions and delegations of the central subject». On the merits of the disputes, the magistrates asked De Luca for clarification regarding 25% of the expenditure for the smart card, equal to 928 thousand and 725 euros. The coordinator Italo Giulivo was asked to account for 742 thousand and 980 euros, the deputy manager Antonio Postiglione for 371 thousand and 490 euros, the IT expert Massimo Bisogno for 928 thousand and 725 euros, Ugo Trama, head of the General Directorate of Health and Coordination of the health service and the regional manager Roberta Santaniello were finally contested 371 thousand and 490 euros each. The agreement between Soresa (Regional Health Society) and a private company for the supply and distribution (started and then suspended) of smart cards, then dated back to 3 May 2021, after the introduction of the greenpass, dated 22 April 2021. According to the investigators, the process continued even when it could have been interrupted without the client paying the costs. Finally, the initiative was also the subject of a censorship, which fell on deaf ears, by the Privacy Guarantor.

The governor: «I stand by my actions»

«I fully and proudly vindicate the decisions taken to protect the health of my fellow citizens, remembering that Campania is the region that has had the lowest number of deaths from Covid in relation to the population. And this is also thanks to the fact that we have assumed responsibility for decisions, often anticipating the national government. Obviously, the sentence will be immediately appealed. I would not like to have to answer for the crime of efficiency”: this is how Campania governor Vincenzo De Luca commented on the sentence.

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December 20, 2024 (changed December 20, 2024 | 1:49 pm)

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