A miscalculation and fluctuating jurisprudence, so after twenty- seven years former administrators of the Municipality of Porto Torres find themselves having to repay the mandate compensation unduly received .

Mayors and members of the council, deputy mayors and presidents of the council, in office in the administrative period 2008-2015, will have to return the excess sums between 400 and 16 thousand euros . Excess indemnities detected following the last check, carried out in May-August 2022 by the General Inspectorate of Public Finance Inspection Services which had started an administrative-accounting check on the indemnities of the directors of the investee company Multiservizi, determined by the method of calculating the remuneration received by the mayor.

An indirect control authorized by the Mef-Ministry of Economy and Finance which revealed the error in relation to the failure to cut wages by 10 per cent, imposed by the 2005 finance law, currently in force. The municipal offices have thus taken action to recover the amounts due , sending the interested parties the note of recovery of the functional allowances.

«Originally, the ministerial interpretation was that the 10 percent cut was limited to 2006 only – explains Giancarlo Carta, general secretary of the Municipality – only later, following various rulings by the Court of Auditors, was the structural nature of the reductive norm. Faced with this situation of uncertainty, in that period of time the interpretation given by the municipal body was not the one that complied with the jurisprudential orientation ».

The Court of Auditors in 2010 stated that the cut should no longer be considered in force. He later changed his position by declaring the reductive rule in force, which therefore appeared to be structural. For the former directors, all that remains is the evaluation of a joint legal action to request the annulment of the provision. Some are contested by sums of dubious collectability, which have become statute-barred.

"Due to an error by the municipal structure, I will have to return money that I have not even received - says former councilor Walter Corrias -. Of course, no sanctions or requests for compensation to the then municipal managers, responsible for the incorrect interpretation of a rule that caused damage to me and other administrators.

The words of the former councilor Davide Tellini : «We would like to understand, among other things, whether the sums identified have already been included in the budget variation with entry of the sums to be recovered. This is a political act that I think must be addressed in the city council to verify any responsibilities certainly not attributable to the former administrators - observes the former member of the junta -. Just as the damage to the institution has been ascertained, we are also waiting to find out if the municipal administration has managed to identify the profiles of responsibility that have caused such a situation. I believe it is an act due both to the former administrators and to the community, since it is public money ».

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