arzano. Municipality on the brink of bankruptcy, heading towards pre-financial bankruptcy. The news was made public by the Councilor for the Budget, Giuseppe Vitagliano. In view of the approval of the budget forecast, under the impetus of the Councilor with responsibility for the budget, Vitagliano, critical issues in the municipality's accounts are emerging that would inevitably determine the financial bankruptcy of the institution.
Since the current Board of Directors took office, the management areas have been urged to disclose the state of the accounts and whether there were any situations of financial disequilibrium. With a note dated June 20, the director of the Financial area Salvatore Silvestro - unlike the previous budgets certified by him - communicated to the Board that, when preparing the budget forecast, the accounts are not in equilibrium, resulting in a situation of financial distress for the Institution.
"Our goal has always been to bring to light unclear situations on the accounts resulting from superficial management of public finances. With this in mind, a series of actions have been put in place aimed at quantifying off-balance sheet debts, certain and potential liabilities, as well as a reassessment operation of residues that we carry in the balance sheet and that no longer have any reason to exist as they lack a legal basis - stated Vitagliano - reiterating that "the situation is critical".
"Our task is not to look for the guilty, that's what the control bodies are for (Court of Auditors, Prosecutor's Office), but to implement all the initiatives that can avoid the bankruptcy with obvious negative repercussions on the entire community. Years of poor planning cannot be recovered in a few months, but we have the responsibility to try to reverse the negative trend that has reduced the municipal coffers to penury. In these hours we are evaluating the opportunity to implement a financial rebalancing plan that would allow us to spread the previous debt situations over several years.
It is certainly a complex and complicated operation that deserves the utmost attention, never before implemented in our Institution. In this way we will have the opportunity to put an end to the past and begin with concrete planning and with the accounts in order for the benefit of the entire community that today has poor services in the face of taxation at the highest levels produced by the past”.
The recovery plan, however, must pass several steps to be enforceable. It must be submitted to the competent ministry and the Court of Auditors for approval, but first it must be approved by the City Council. “The City Council,” Vitagliano further specifies, “from which we expect a great sense of responsibility, avoiding sterile instrumentalization of an exclusively political nature, also because the only alternative to the plan would be financial bankruptcy.” In short, if the recovery plan is not accepted, the only thing left would be bankruptcy with the appointment of a liquidator, even if the attempt at pre-bankruptcy is controversial, which, however, would not bring to light the previous responsibilities of commissioners and political administrations.
Louis Vanacore
EDITORIAL TEAM
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