Court of Auditors investigates Lazio Region's expenses at Osaka Expo, Rocca: Rules respected

In Lazio, the controversy over the costs sustained by the Region for the mission to the Expo in Osaka, Japan, continues to dominate the scene. The regional prosecutor’s office of the Court of Auditors has opened an investigation into possible financial damage, following the complaint filed by the regional councilor of Lazio and Roman secretary of Azione, Alessio D’Amato. For his part, the President, Francesco Rocca, sent the accusations back to the sender, saying he was calm about the investigation. “The Region complied with the laws and community directives regarding the use of funds, respecting the expected destination criteria: all expenses were documented with transparency, available to the competent authorities”, explained Rocca, a guest on the television program “L’aria che tira”, broadcast on La 7. From May 18 to 24, in fact, a very large delegation from the Region, composed of about 40 people, including institutional figures, sector operators, center-right and center-left councilors, participated in the trip to the Asian country. Like the other Italian regions, the Lazio representation was involved, in the stand rented inside the Italian pavilion, in various institutional meetings, events and workshops with companies and other foreign delegations, to promote regional excellence and attract foreign investments. The main objective was to encourage the internationalization of local companies, facilitating commercial exchanges and development opportunities.

The mission cost about 1,8 million euros, but the numbers and costs have raised several controversies. “A maxi-regional delegation composed of over three dozen people in Japan borders on the ridiculous. If all this is done at the expense of public coffers, it represents a real insult to the citizens of Lazio”, declared councilor D’Amato in recent days, also presenting a question to president Rocca. The complaint contests the expenses for gadgets and external communication: in particular 18 thousand euros for trolleys, 25 thousand for personalized scarves and ties and 16 thousand for “networking cocktails”. Then five-star hotels, dinners, travel and allowances. “The costs committed so far would appear to be more than 1,8 million euros and it is not clear whether they also include travel allowances, additional allowances and daily allowances and meals due to employees of the region”, the complaint reads. The investigation by the accounting judges, therefore, intends to verify the financial details of the mission, to ascertain the correctness in the use of resources and that there was no waste of public money. The file concerns in particular the way in which the funds were spent, with attention to the procedures adopted, the amounts used and the benefits obtained.

But President Rocca is not having it and, on live television, defended the work of the Region, launching several jabs at Councilor D’Amato. “They were not 60 people, the issue is more complex: they were 42 or 43 people,” Rocca specified. “About 40 people are from the regional staff, but also from the superintendency that accompanied the Michelangelo that we brought. Then there are 544 companies that came with funds allocated partly by the Region and partly by the Chamber of Commerce to promote the entrepreneurial realities of our Region,” Rocca added. The audiovisual products “serve to promote the region, because over 100 thousand people passed through the stand, they are not part of the costs of the realization,” the governor specified. These are “European funds dedicated to internationalization and not a single euro was taken away from health, social services, infrastructure and public housing or services for citizens,” he underlined. The cost of participation, “just over 1,7 million, of which only 10 percent for the delegation was proportionate to the investment we made. The costs are all certified: I am calm, the Court of Auditors will verify – Rocca assured -. When you organize six workshops of the Region to promote the Lazio system and 20 moments of meeting with local businesses, the staff is needed, because you still have to meet hundreds of entrepreneurs. There were 90 accredited newspapers, among the most important in Japan, for the opening of our pavilion”, Rocca explained.

Finally, the harsh attack on the previous council and the former councilor, Alessio D’Amato: “the numbers that councilor D’Amato gives are completely creative, the result of a subject who, instead, is a regional champion of the Court of Auditors, because he was sentenced to repay 250 thousand euros of regional contributions for the affair of the non-profit organization Italia-Amazzonia. The Zingaretti council spent 1,9 million euros, without a stand, to go to Dubai and then they spent 4,5 million to go to Milan, in that council there was Alessio D’Amato”, concluded President Rocca. Councilor D’Amato’s response was not long in coming: “The patch risks being worse than the hole and President Rocca’s response on the use of European funds will have to be examined in detail, since I am not aware that the resources of the European Social Fund, relating to education and training, can be spent on gifts such as personalized ties and scarves, at 122 euros each, and personalized trolleys at 275 euros each”, declared D’Amato, announcing that he will present a new question.