7 November 2007

The Money of Milan People

Yesterday the City Councillor Raffaele Grassi of Italia dei Valori, made a speech in the Milan Council Meeting to ask for illumination of a financial operation of the Albertini Cabinet.
Ms Moratti was asked, given the political continuity of the two cabinets, to disassociate herself and to go on with the necessary checking on the very risky financial operations that could leave the balance sheet with a hole of more than 400 million Euro.
The administration of public money cannot be conducted in a way that is speculative and non-transparent by those who have to guarantee and protect the interests of the true owners of that money: the citizens.

Text:
”In the last few days I have come across an affair that started in 2005 when the city administration at that time, under the leadership of the former Mayor Albertini was faced with the need to find 100 million Euro to cover current spending transforming some current debts with certain banks, drawing up new contracts for mortgages so that they changed from favourable fixed rate interest rates that at that time were very low to variable rates. In the last two years these have seen a growth in interest rates on a world scale and they are showing exposure for all families. It is possible that this very strong consequence, could happen in relation to the city administration, even because the mortgages arranged with the new contracts have a 30 year limit.
I believe that it is an exposure of the so-called “derivatives” that the Albertini administration has always done in his task of public administrator. Given that the former Mayor Albertini has always complained about being an “administrator of a condominium”, I say that the administrator of a condominium has not done what he should have done, that like a good father of a family, he should have made investments that were prudent and clear.
Yesterday, 5 November, at the Council meeting I made a speech to denounce this fact, in which in fact we complain, on the part of the City Council and the Councillors of the removal of the power to control. We believe that the councillors should perform a form of control, whether they are in the majority and above all in opposition, so as to have the possibility to control the management of what the Cabinet does in relation to the administrative acts.
Unfortunately, the Albertini cabinet, the majority councillors, but above all, those in opposition did not even have this possibility, since the documents relating to this operation were kept secret by Albertini himself for a month, the natural time for doing this operation with the banks.
However I believe that we must not criticize the behaviour of the previous administration which may be legitimate to a greater or lesser extent, but we must ask what is the aim of the city administration, if the public administrators are delegated to speculate with the money of the people rather than carry out a whole series of interventions and give back the wealth collected in taxes as services to the citizens. This is the primary task of a public administrator.
If then we enter the mine field of financial operations, an eloquent example is what happened a few years ago between the ATM and the Del Monte bonds, in which 10 million Euro was lost at a time when the renewal of the work contract of the workers of the transport company were at risk while the directors were doing financial operations that then gave negative results.
I believe that in the near future Mayor Moratti must come and tell us at a Council meeting how things have gone, given that even the fact that the current majority is a continuation of the previous one, in which the Mayor has changed, but the same deputy Mayor, cabinet members and some of the councillors in the majority.
Meanwhile there are people who can be asked to give an account of what has happened, and I believe that the Mayor must come and tell us in the Council meeting. If this doesn’t happen, then as a member of Italia dei Valori I am formally committed to ask for a Committee of Enquiry so as not to lose precious time because never before this moment has it been more true, losing time means also losing money.
I will formalize this request as soon as possible with the appropriate people, but I have the impression that there will be an attempt to wriggle out of this by having a debate in the Accounts Committee. This too is an important body for discussing this, but I believe that in these sessions, where perhaps we will discuss this matter we need the presence of Mayor Moratti who has the duty as there is no member of the Cabinet with responsibility for Accounts.

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Economy