Accused of being the "time clock tricksters", reported and pilloried. It happened about 5 years ago but the municipal employees Dolores Daga and Giuliano Salis have amply demonstrated their innocence. In the courtroom they chose the ordinary procedure precisely because they were sure they were totally uninvolved in the facts they were accused of.

It all started with a report to the Guardia di Finanza, and investigations immediately began with the help of video cameras and tailing. According to the Guardia di Finanza, the two would clock in at the Sant'Anna Town Hall and then go out to do the shopping, go to the bar or even run another business. The images of shame were distributed to various media.

The criminal trial is now in its final stages, in the meantime the Court of Auditors has accepted the requests of defense lawyers Stefano Carboni for Giuliano Salis (head gardener) and Edoardo Morette and Andrea Delias for Dolores Daga (waste sector) acquitting both municipal employees and sentencing, instead, the Local Authority to pay the legal costs. The panel of judges ended up ruling in favor of the two workers first because the accusations were not confirmed by the documents and then because the extensive documentation produced by the defense clarified that the employees, when they were outside the office, were still carrying out their duties often well in advance of the working hours established by the contract.

No financial damage, therefore, and no absenteeism. The head gardener Salis, in fact, started work half an hour early and moved between one construction site and another with his own means, because the Municipality did not provide them to him. The same goes for Daga, who used a bicycle for control activities in the waste sector. The judges acquitted the two employees and sentenced, instead, the Municipality of Alghero, which had joined the civil action, to pay the legal costs.

Catherine Flowers

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