Who will the Regional Attorney's Office side with? With the Regional Anti-Corruption Office, which declared the appointment null and void. Or with the Regional Council, which approved the appointment? The legal matter surrounding the (now former) sole director of Forestas, Salvatore Piras, risks becoming tangled. He has announced his intention to challenge the decision that caused him to lose his position after nearly two years at the helm of the agency. This measure ( DETAILS HERE ) is linked to his activity as director of the Opera Gesù Nazareno company in Sassari, active   in the field of socio-healthcare rehabilitation. Ge.Na. (abbreviated), which had also been the subject of a question in the Regional Council : the opposition had raised doubts about the legitimacy of several multi-million dollar contracts with Ares. The Health Department had offered reassurances, but further investigations had been announced. And there's no guarantee the matter is over, even on this front.

The cancellation

To understand this, we must begin at the end. From the decision that nullified Piras's June 2024 appointment, due to the national law on incompatibility and ineligibility for appointment: the regional Anti-Corruption Authority ruled that the professional could not hold the position at Forestas because, in the previous year, he had managed the company (Opera Gesù Nazareno) that had received funds from regional entities under a contract for rehabilitation services. The same ruling launched an investigation into any liability on the part of those who made the appointment, namely the councilors of the Todde administration and the president. Piras, shortly thereafter, announced his intention to challenge his dismissal, emphasizing that he had made all the necessary declarations regarding his private activities and that he had not failed to uphold transparency.

"Institutional short circuit"

Her complaints are legitimate. The Regional Administrative Court (TAR) will decide who is right. But some are identifying a risk of an "institutional short circuit." The Anti-Corruption Office has no independent defense and should be represented in court by the Regional Attorney's Office. This is the paradox, because the Regional Attorney's Office reports to the Regional President and can only be appointed to defend the office by the governor. In practice, Alessandra Todde should authorize the Attorney's Office to defend before the Regional Administrative Court the Anti-Corruption Office's decision, which annulled her own appointment decree.

An "institutional short circuit," as Michele Pais (Lega), former president of the Regional Council, calls it, "another mess, after the invalid appointments of the Local Health Authority and hundreds of thousands of euros in damages to the Sardinians." And now, the League member notes, "it will be interesting to see what mandate President Todde will give to the Attorney General's Office: defend her own appointment decree or defend the annulment of the Anti-Corruption Office?"

The economic crisis

But this isn't the first time Piras's private activities, connected to his public ones, have come under scrutiny at the Regional Council. One of the most recent was by the Brothers of Italy party: they described a situation of serious financial difficulty for Ge.Na. (with a projected loss of approximately €831,000) caused by a "lack of consistency between the new tariff distribution and spending caps," and asked Todde to intervene in her capacity as president and regional health councilor.

The doubts

While the previous document has not yet received a response, the department has addressed a question submitted in December by Alessandro Sorgia, also a member of the Brothers of Italy party. The document discusses two contracts between Gesù Nazareno (still led by Piras) and Ares in January and March 2025, worth €1.6 million and €1.2 million. "Both contracts, although signed in 2025," Sorgia writes, "refer to the period from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2026, and expressly stipulate that the structure's staffing, broken down by operational location, be specified in the staff list, countersigned by the legal representative. The list must include: tax code, qualification, job title, unit of affiliation, weekly working hours, type of contract applied, and, for medical staff, the specialization obtained." The lists of names are attached, and almost all the operators, including Piras, appear in both. Sorgia points out that each operator's employment, for each contract, should be between 36 and 38 hours per week. In short, the question is: how is it possible that they can work 76 hours a week? Among them is Piras, who also serves (was) as the sole director of Forestas.

The response is signed by the Chief of Staff of the Department of Health, Stefano Ferreli. It states that "Opera Gesù Nazareno srl holds two contracts for the provision of healthcare and social-health services: one for comprehensive rehabilitation and one for mental health. The two healthcare facilities, despite being distinct in terms of patient types and services, are physically located in a single building in Sassari. For this reason, some of the staff work on both lines of business, without any documentation regarding the level of services provided." Furthermore, "there are no reports of unlawful exceeding of working hours, nor of deficiencies or non-compliance in the provision of services, the control of which, from a healthcare and social-health perspective, is directly entrusted to the Local Health Authority." Furthermore, Ferreli writes , "Ares reports that, in any case, it has requested a further update with a separate request for each professional figure regarding the hours worked for the lines of business in order to monitor the proper execution of the contract."

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