9 May 2007

Put a Stop to Political Foundations

I’m publishing a letter from Silvana Mura, of IdV, about Political Foundations.

“The attempt to create Party Foundations that failed thanks to the opposition of Italia dei Valori, is an example of how the parties try on every occasion, to increase their receipts at the expense of the State and the citizen.
In this case they tried in the worst way by inserting into a law that has nothing at all to do with foundations, an amendment to set them up. All this with the agreement of both the majority and the opposition.
The happening took place in the Lower House at the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and the draft law was 1667.
The draft law aims to move the established time frame for the request for electoral expenses that is paid to the parties after the elections. This allows all the political groupings to present their requests at the right time.
One of the amendments presented for this law established the creation of political-cultural foundations
These would have been able to get public money and use personnel of the public administration, who would then have been given leave of absence. Not just that. If these personnel were then to be promoted and get salary increases these benefits would have been valid even when they returned to their positions in the public administration. Finally, there’s a point that explains the true aim of this amendment.
On the one hand it is said that it is not possible for the foundations to transfer money to the party to which they belong. But on the other hand they are allowed to transfer goods and services to the parties. Thus it is a question of what is called in accounting language transfer of funds, and for the citizens this would have been a way of taking them for a ride.
Italia dei Valori has nothing against foundations, but it is against them if they are to be paid for by the citizens. Considering that the parties already take a mountain of money with election expenses it’s certainly not the thing to give them more. This time their game did not succeed because Italia dei Valori made the affair known to the public who very rightly were indignant.
When faced with the protests of the citizens and fearing the unpopularity that would have resulted, the parties took a step back and after freezing the examination of the law for a good two months, the amendment was definitively withdrawn.”
Silvana Mura

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Politics