The work was supposed to improve the energy efficiency of a public housing building. But in via Cornalias 66, in Cagliari, there was little or nothing efficient. So much so that the Municipality tore up the contract worth over a million euros signed in 2023 with the company. The reason: serious breaches and delays. Which, reading the documents, would be something like a ghost construction site, despite payments by the administration.
The story is reconstructed in detail in a document from the municipal department of Public Works.
The renovation of the Erp building (public housing) was part of the “Integrated Territorial Investment - Cagliari Is Mirrionis” program, financed with European funds. The spirit of the project is: «We want to impact the material dimension of living and improve the living conditions of the inhabitants by building socio-inclusive models (...). The significant presence of public housing, which over time the administration has not managed to maintain or adapt to the new needs of living, has profoundly affected the development of the district, which today is characterized by a state of widespread degradation of the buildings and public spaces». So here is the idea: let's fix up the houses.
The process went well until November 2023, when the administration signed the contract with Edilit, a Cagliari company. Value of one million and 55 thousand euros to redo the roofs of the building, the systems and the fixtures in 300 days.
A variation was immediately requested, because interventions deemed necessary but not foreseeable before delivery emerged. Then a long series of inspections by municipal technicians revealed that there were few workers at work on that construction site. Immediate requests arrived, to reinforce the team of bricklayers. Warnings that fell on deaf ears. The times began to expand and it was understood that the schedule would not be respected. Until last July 25, when "the works management communicated the status of the activities to the RUP, ascertaining the absence of work activity by the company since July 8, suspended arbitrarily". A ghost construction site.
The manager Paolo Pani thus armed himself with a PC and digital signature to "declare terminated the contract for the procurement, registered for tax purposes in Cagliari on 27 November 2023, stipulated with the company Edilit Srl due to serious delay and serious continued non-fulfilment of contractual obligations". The recovery of the sums already paid for the progress of the works was also ordered".
Enrico Fresu
