Dear Vice President of the Council, Matteo Salvini, after the numerous investigations that uisjournal.com has published on the project for the construction of the bridge over the Strait of Messina – also with the contribution of our local editorial staff, ReggioToday and MessinaToday – we have two urgent questions to which only She can answer. The first: why keep secret the issue of the billion-dollar penalty that the state would have to pay if the bridge were not built? The second: what is the technical-scientific competence of the committee that will have to approve the final project? We have seen that so far it is mainly made up of lawyers and economists, represented by a secretary who is the former director of Radio Padania: professionals in their field, but certainly not in the design and construction of bridges. And it is difficult to be able to count on the many external consultants: the list includes numerous jurists, computer scientists and a gymnastics teacher who is already a minister in the League. There is actually an active designer: but of interiors, villas and car dealerships.

Two urgent questions to the Minister of Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini

Let’s start with the penalties. The rumor circulating at the Ministry of Infrastructure estimates around 10 percent of the value of the work, which today has reached 14.5 billion: that is, at the moment, it would be a penalty of 1.45 billion euros, which the Italians risk of having to pay through a reduction in services or an increase in taxes. A truly transparent and free government should reveal to the citizens, and first of all to its voters, the sum and the documents of the procurement contract that determined it. Information that, until now, has been kept secret by your ministry.

Bridge over the Strait, the document that demolishes the project – by Fabrizio Gatti

The definitive project, signed by the leaders of the public company Stretto di Messina with the representatives of the private company Eurolink, once the changes recently prescribed by the Ministry of the Environment have been adopted, will soon be examined by the Cipess for approval. It is practically the last formal and substantial stage for the preparation of the executive project, the start of the construction sites and the assumption of the expenditure that will commit the State, and all of us citizens, for the next few years. Until the work is completed.

Alessandro Morelli, head of the committee that does not deal with bridges

Cipess is the inter-ministerial committee for economic planning and sustainable development: a Palazzo Chigi body that reports to the undersecretary to the presidency of the Council, Alessandro Morelli, 47 years old, professional journalist and former director of Radio Padania, the League’s radio channel. The second question is precisely this: with what technical skills will the Cipess be able to express its opinion of approval on the definitive project regarding the structural choices adopted, but also the adequacy of the expenditure?

Let’s see what the practice would be. The institutional technical body that should, by law, express its opinion on the design of public works of particular importance, such as the bridge over the Strait, is the Superior Council of Public Works. Its general president is a civil engineer graduated with honors (Massimo Sessa) who therefore, unlike Alessandro Morelli’s journalistic training, would have specific skills on such a demanding work. The Superior Council is also made up of other engineers, divided into specialized sections which can make use of a central technical service for the study of projects.

The Mercedes dealership designer and environmental expert

We checked the CVs, published by the Presidency of the Council, of over one hundred top members of Cipess and their consultants. We found only one active civil engineer and two architects. However, the civil engineer was responsible for the expansion of airports in Puglia and, again according to what he states in his CV, he has no experience in building bridges. Much less suspended ones of a deformable type, like the one they want to create between Sicily and Calabria. One of the two architects specializes in urban and environmental planning: therefore he doesn’t deal with bridges either. The other colleague instead designed the Mercedes dealerships in half of Italy, the offices of the then Finmeccanica in Moscow and Washington, the control tower of the Malta airport. But, again according to the curriculum, no infrastructure like a complex bridge. And then, as the law highlights, architects do not have the same skills as engineers.

Another member graduated in construction engineering and qualified as a civil-environmental engineer, deals with “coordination in accounting and budget matters” on behalf of the Ministry of Infrastructure. Same formal civil engineer qualification for another colleague who, however, today deals with energy policies, the environment and climate change. The last engineer on the committee has a degree in biomedical engineering. All the other members, apart from a physics graduate, are lawyers, economists, jurists and administrative law experts. As is normal to expect from the Department for planning and coordination of economic policy of the Presidency of the Council, on which Cipess depends.

There is also a gymnastics teacher: he is the former minister Bussetti

Some other engineers can be found in the list of contract consultants. But they are computer scientists, specialized in digital transition, designers and an expert in automation mechanics. As well as an army of economists, jurists and lawyers. Among the consultants also appears a gymnastics professor with a degree in physical education, Marco Bussetti, 62 years old (photo above), Minister of Education in the League during Giuseppe Conte’s first government. Bussetti, despite having been appointed among the Cipess experts, should not deal with the bridge over the Strait. His assignment paid 47 thousand euros depends in fact on the “mission structure of national anniversaries and sporting events”. However, according to their CVs, no one shows specific and current experience in the design, construction or validation of bridges. And therefore it can be a competent voice.

What if the Bridge isn’t built? State secret on billion-dollar penalties – by Cesare Treccarichi

Among other things, two top members of Cipess could not vote on an act presented by the Stretto di Messina company, since in the past they were paid by the same company. One is the urban architect who, on behalf of the Strait of Messina, was responsible for “updating and integrating the environmental impact study of the bridge project over the Strait and its connections”. The second of the top members already employed by the company, a lawyer, was an official in the legal management: in particular, upon appointment by the CEO, he was the commission secretary in tenders and manager of the tender documents, as well as having managed the “institutional relations between the company, the ministries and other central and territorial bodies” with regards to infrastructures, tariffs and concessions.

The 50 thousand euro consultancy and the precedent of the Morandi bridge

The Cipess technical group also includes a former Lega parliamentarian, appointed by Giorgia Meloni as a consultant on 5 June 2023 with a gross compensation of 50 thousand euros. The bridge over the Strait for him is a question of love. That’s right: “A true declaration of love – he says in 2020 during the discussion in the Chamber -. The firm will of our party to express itself favorably for the realization of a truly strategic work”. However, not even the former parliamentarian has technical skills: in fact he graduated with honors in economics and banking sciences. Why then spend hundreds of thousands of euros on external consultants, when the Superior Council of Public Works can count on engineers already hired and paid by the State?

We asked the same questions to Cipess, but so far there has been no response. Already in the past, during a centre-left government, the Ministry of Infrastructure decided not to involve the institutional consultative body for major works. Even if it was the renovation project of a very delicate bridge: drawings and photographs were in fact examined by a plethora of officials, who were graduates in political science and law. Very good at verifying compliance with the administrative procedure. But without any technical-scientific experience. So they didn’t give any weight to the photos they had about the conditions of the Morandi bridge in Genoa. They only became aware of the emergency on 14 August 2018 after the collapse, resulting in 43 deaths and over five hundred displaced people (in the photo above, one of the images that accompanied the renovation project of the Morandi bridge in Genoa).

Matteo Salvini as Romano Prodi: the secret of public procurement

Avoiding the technical-scientific verification and control procedure can also be imprudent in the design of the bridge over the Strait. Yet these are the words of the Minister of Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, in the Chamber: “The procedural process for the approval of the definitive project of the Bridge takes place pursuant to article 3 of the decree-law number 35 which, as a special regulation. .. does not refer to the opinion of the Superior Council of Public Works. It establishes that the approval of the project by the Cipess replaces any other authorization, approval and opinion however denominated and allows the construction and, for strategic production sites, the ‘exercise of all works, services and activities envisaged in the approved project”.

These legal shortcuts cannot be on the side of citizens. And the good performance and impartiality of the public administration (provided for by Article 97 of the Constitution). Not even the secrecy of documents is. This is demonstrated by another case involving a centre-left government: when the then prime minister Romano Prodi placed state secrecy on the construction sites to transform the military arsenal on the island of La Maddalena into the venue for the summit between heads of state and government of the G8 (photo above). The lack of transparency on contracts and works was the occasion for the colossal scandal of the Cricca and the waste of almost 500 million, literally thrown into the sea. But above all in the pockets of unfaithful entrepreneurs and officials. Despite the expenditure of public money and the reclamations that did not reclaim anything, the new Arsenal was never used for its purposes. Now it’s falling apart. It would be ironic and a very bad omen to think that, for the construction of the bridge over the Strait of Messina, Minister Matteo Salvini today wants to repeat the same mistakes made by the PD governments.

Read the other uisjournal.com investigations on the bridge over the Strait of Messina