The former director of the "Sardegna Promotion" agency, Mariano Mariani, was sentenced by the jurisdictional section of the Sardinian Court of Auditors to pay 915,346 euros to the Region, also declaring direct jurisdiction over Corrado Camilla and Showlab srl. The latter is the company that created the reality show " Sweet Sardinia " financed by the regional agency with one million and 73 thousand euros. The protagonists were eight couples sailing on a galleon that for two months circled the island, and were constantly filmed by the cameras. Everything was then broadcast on La5, a Mediaset channel.
Mariani in 2013 signed an agreement with the Turin production company. For the public prosecutor, that contract was to be considered null, since a public tender would be required to award it. Not only that: the goal of giving visibility to the agri-food excellence of Sardinia had not even been achieved, and the promotional project pursued by the Agency had gone up in smoke, in fact the reality show had turned out to be a flop also in terms of audience and it was stopped in the first season.
Then various controversies arose as a result of which the regional agency was finally closed and a commissioner was appointed who was supposed to stop the payment of the sum owed by the Region to the Turin company. Hence a series of appeals that forced the Region to pay.
In the sentence of sentencing to Mariani, the judges recognized the gross negligence but not the willful misconduct requested by the Prosecutor's Office. "The negligent behavior held by these subjects (Agency and Region, ed) cannot be considered suitable, in itself, to interrupt the causal link between the conduct of the defendant and the damage event, nor to affect the severity of the fault in relation to Mr. Mariani - reads the provision - In relation to the signing of the agreement with Showlab, it must be considered that the neglect of the subjects who managed the subsequent phases of the complex matter under examination, however, affected the amount of the damage concretely determined ".
