Minister Raffaele Fitto sent a letter to the mayors of Campania
on the programming of national cohesion policy funds, also in response to the demonstration held last February 16th in Rome.
"The disbursement of resources could not take place without the prior acquisition of the complete list of interventions", states Fitto who explains that he asked for the documents, which arrived only yesterday:
"The Region was clearly in default, and not the Government. Paradoxically, it would have been more appropriate that the mayors, that day, had met in Naples to urge the Region to send the documentation to the Government".
"This morning - declared Minister Fitto - I sent a letter to all the mayors of Campania which concerns the programming of the national funds of the cohesion policy of the Campania Region. As is known, on 14 February last I met, at the request of the Anci Regionale Campania, a delegation of mayors who expressed concern about an alleged failure of the Government regarding the definition of the Cohesion Agreement between the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the Campania Region, with particular reference to the urgency of identifying the financing to complete the projects of the Municipalities not completed by the deadline of 31 December 2023. On the following 16 February, the same mayors demonstrated in Rome against the government to release the requested resources".
"However - continues Fitto - the disbursement of the resources could not take place without the prior acquisition of the complete list of interventions to be financed. On February 16th, I sent a note to the Region to request the transmission of this documentation.
The Region was clearly in default , and not the Government. Therefore, the Region organized the demonstration against the Government in full awareness that the regional offices themselves had failed to send, on that date,
the documentary elements necessary to release the resources for the Municipalities". Paradoxically, it would have been more appropriate if the mayors had met in Naples that day to urge the Region to send the necessary documentation to the Government. This perhaps would have led the Region to anticipate the transmission of the list of interventions to be financed, a list which was only sent yesterday evening, allowing us to begin the investigation no earlier than today".
"I confirm - concluded Minister Fitto - the government's commitment to do everything necessary to meet the needs of the territories, and to proceed, also in Campania as is happening with all the other Regions, to the definition of the Cohesion Agreements ".
In the letter sent to all the mayors of Campania, Fitto explains that the Region has identified 367 interventions to be completed for 242 municipalities.
The allocation of resources for the Campania territory - he recalls - is "equal to 5.9 billion FSC euros" and "has never been questioned".
"The technical investigation coordinated by the Department for Cohesion Policies for the definition of the Cohesion Agreement has never seen any setbacks. On the contrary, we work incessantly to analyze previous programming cycles and evaluate delays in spending, with the aim of clearly defining the investigative framework to be placed at the basis of the Agreement - writes the minister - Proof of this is the fact that the Region, net of useless public controversies, has always provided feedback on the requests made to it were addressed during the investigation".
Furthermore, in the letter, the minister asks for an accurate verification of the interventions and also to provide the identification and financial data of the uncompleted projects of the individual municipalities.
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