While the debate on the Strait Bridge continues to divide politicians, citizens and experts, a new judicial case brings attention back to the transparency that should accompany the construction of one of the most controversial and expensive public works in the country.
The Rome Prosecutor’s Office has in fact opened an investigation into alleged episodes of corruption and revelation of official secrets, ordering a series of searches carried out by the Carabinieri del Ros between Rome, Reggio Calabria and Frosinone.
At the center of the investigation are three people: a former deputy president of the Court of Auditors, a lawyer from the province of Reggio Calabria, former member of the board of directors of the company Stretto di Messina Spa and an entrepreneur from Reggio Calabria resident in Rome.
The accusations
According to the investigators, the lawyer and the entrepreneur tried to orient the Court of Auditors’ examination in a way that was favorable to the company in charge of building the Bridge over the Strait. The investigative hypothesis claims that the accounting magistrate would have been offered future roles in public bodies or investee companies after retirement, in exchange for a concrete interest in the procedures relating to the infrastructure project.
The investigators also contest alleged revelations of confidential information relating to the internal evaluations of the Court of Auditors, including indications on the orientations of other magistrates and on the developments of the deliberations regarding the work.
Again according to the accusation, the judge provided constant updates on the progress of the procedures and expressed interest in holding prestigious positions once his institutional career was concluded. The accusations are yet to be verified and the investigation is still in its preliminary phase.
Meanwhile, the company in charge of carrying out the work immediately distanced itself from the matter and the managing director Pietro Ciucci declared that he was surprised to learn of the investigations and reiterated that the company was completely unrelated to the disputed facts.
The company is totally unrelated to the facts, stated Ciucci, ensuring collaboration with the judiciary and confirming its desire to continue the project in compliance with the provisions and findings formulated by the control bodies.
The investigation opened by the Rome Prosecutor’s Office does not call into question, at least at present, the construction of the Bridge, but it inevitably reignites the debate on an infrastructure that for decades has divided the country between supporters and opponents. On the one hand there are those who consider it a strategic work for the connection between Sicily and the continent, on the other those who continue to raise doubts about the costs, the environmental impacts, the infrastructural priorities of the South and the real sustainability of the project.
