He receives the "advanced" health card but the elderly person has been deceased for eleven years. In an envelope, the heirs, residing in Porto Torres, received the synthesis of technological "efficiency", an extraordinary paradox of bureaucracy and electronics. He, Gavino Cau, the person concerned, passed away on 21 December 2011, at the age of 79 and, if he had been alive, he would have blown out 90 candles on 12 May. Unfortunately, he can no longer look to the future or even to a service that must be combined with the past.

Mockery

Delivered by post, the card in recent days was surprised to arrive at the address where the nephew lives, Antonio Carboni, 32, son of the second child Antonella Cau, complete with a cover letter and instructions that the card with microchip offers to the citizen. "When I read that the letter was sent by the Revenue Agency, I thought it was some back tax to pay," says the nephew. “On the other hand, in front of that document, I was amazed that my grandfather did not turn out to be dead. Yet the payment of the survivor's pension stopped immediately after his death ». The episode made family members smile because of what was written in the letter: "Dear Gavino Cau, we are sending you your new health card which replaces the expired one".

Bitterness

«My grandfather had never requested the document in question and therefore not even the renewal» explains Antonio, «but I remember that we had registered the date of death with the competent bodies». A very rare possibility, since usually the deaths are promptly registered by the municipal registries, but unfortunately the updating of the databases of the Revenue Agency is not immediate. Born in 1932, Gavino Cau for over thirty years had been at the head of an industrial porterage cooperative that operated in the port area at the service of the former Petrochemical, managed material transport and goods handling activities for Sir, the then Italian company Rovelli resins developed in the 1960s. In Porto Torres, his hometown, they remember him for his passion for Sardinian music events that he often organized and as president of the Combattenti e Veterans association, a local section founded after World War II to keep alive the memory of the victims of world conflicts. "We are aware that we were not the only ones to receive the post mortem health card - adds Antonio - demonstration of the inability to cross data and the slowness of the public administration". Now the relatives give the card to the Revenue Agency with the death certificate attached so that they can also inform the ASL, to prevent them from receiving another card upon expiry, in 2028.

Mariangela Pala

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