The dossier was to remain armored in the secret rooms of the water industry, the one that should deliver the precious liquid to the beauty of 750,000 Sardinian users. On the other hand, heavy stretch marks on Abbanoa's internal intelligence are added to the copious losses in the pipelines that distribute the good things throughout Sardinia. The "papyrus", written in full by the heads of the sectors "Credit management and recovery", "Billing", "Accounting and budget complex" and "Procurement", is more a " time bomb ”. The content is not only explosive, but it risks overwhelming the internal structure of the Company. Seventeen pages of "confessions" and "disavowals", gruesome numbers on credits to be demanded and injunctions to be sent to a huge number of users, disputes kept hidden and silent that alone would be enough to send anyone upset. The sentence of the Court of Appeal of Sassari on previous adjustments 2005-2011 and that of the Guarantor Authority with the record fine of 5 million euros are nothing compared to the tsunami that could hit the water giant.
Red alert
That the situation is on the verge of collapse can be seen from the first lines of the letter prepared for the board of directors: "Urgent and non-postponable decisions aimed at continuing the" invoice and credit document delivery service "and the" downstream service delivery (reporting of the results of mailing of credit documents) ". We are talking about the most delicate part for a company that manages a mountain of users: collection. Urgent and non-postponable decisions mean that there is a lack of oxygen and the patient Abbanoa "is leaving". The executives who prepared the diagram report, which we reproduce in the photo, are not stalkers, but when they write they are worse than a combine harvester at full capacity. The notes they send to the board of directors are a flurry of emails rather than a "weighted call for action." They write to him on 16, 21, 23, last March, insist on 5 and 7 April, and again on 16 May and 9 June. The tenor is that of those who want to "overwhelm" the directors with responsibility. The tones are those of those who want to be relieved of burdens which, according to the managers, are instead all on the part of the legal representatives of the company. It will be difficult for the directors not to glimpse in this last note a sort of explicit reference to the "shortcomings" of the highest-ranking individuals. One has the idea that this is an obvious legal strategy entirely aimed at pre-establishing a lifting of responsibilities for the managers, throwing them, however, on others. The formula adopted by the managers who sign the proposal and indictment deed is contained in a few lines: "The indispensable need to acquire, with the necessary formalities, all the acts, decisions, provisions and guidelines, assessments or numerical and programmatic evidence adopted or for adoption by the Board of Directors ". They do not expressly tell him that those acts had to adopt them and they did not, but they put on paper the request to receive them formally.
Postal bomb
The "bomb" is triggered: "The use of the mailing services market (bills and credit deeds) has given a negative result". In practice, Abbanoa was left without a person capable of sending bills and deeds of all kinds, from injunctions to those of formal notice. As if to say that the financial heart of the company is stopping and a solution has not yet been adopted that can avoid the crash. In the confidential document in our possession, the phrase used does not leave much room for interpretation: "A contingent criticality is identified (the blocking of the delivery service) to resolve which it is necessary to adopt urgent and timely decisions".
Responsibility race
In the managerial attempt to identify the responsibilities of others, two evident elements are recalled in the defensive and attack strategy. The first step is explicit against the legal representatives of the company: "The restructuring plan proposed for 2020-2025 has never been approved by the shareholders". The second is more subtle, but also explicit in its intent: "To date, the updated Convention with the fundamental planning and programming acts, including the Area Plan, the 'attached Economic and Financial Plan, the Regulations and the status expected at the end of the concession also in terms of assets and assets ». A frontal attack on EGAS, the person who oversees the public relationship with Abbanoa. If this is the open game of responsibilities, there is no escape from the merciless numbers of the financial management of the water company, all written down in black and white in the confidential document. Mind-boggling figures such as the one declared apertis verbis in the letter that was to remain secret: "The size of the credit, about 1,000 million euros gross of the fund".
A billion to be collected
In practice, Abbanoa would have to collect, according to what the executives who sign the letter declare, the beauty of one billion euros. An exorbitant figure that allows us to understand the gravity of the management situation of the company. A combination to be linked with the red code emergency reported in the document: Abbanoa risks being unable to send bills, injunctions and formal notice. All this with "the impact on the overall stability of the plan and management, the complexity and peculiarity of the execution of the deeds required for credit management". The risk is that of the total blocking of an entire collection system. And in the text they write it without fear of denial: "With the intensification of the actions on credit, a very significant impact is generated on the management structures (call center, reclaim, litigation, etc.) potentially capable, due to the numbers involved, to paralyze the operational structures completely ". A situation directly connected with two numbers reported in the internal communication: a stock of credits, as of March 31, the last one surveyed, of one billion euro, and the other frightening figure that speaks of "100 million" of euro of credits to be collected from "shareholders" and the public administration.
Shareholders & splints
The message is clear: it was not "possible" to make Abbanoa's shareholders pay either. To understand what is about to happen, in addition to what has already happened, one must hold firm to read the most bloody part of the communication: "To exemplify the practical and impact aspects towards the" ordinary "posting phase, the shipment of 200 thousand deeds of formal notice, or about 100 thousand tax injunctions ». In the document it is explicitly written: «The indicated values are underestimated». To understand the extent of the numbers, a reference in the dossier is enough: "With reference to tax injunctions, the judicial offices in the past have already been able to accept the notification of a maximum of 12 documents per day, based on the time required for each processing". In practice, to hesitate all it would take "just" 22 years and a few months. The question may arise spontaneously: but up to now how has it been done to deliver bills, notifications and so on? To fully understand the degree of confusion that emerges in the governance of the company, all the disputes opened by Abbanoa with the companies that have operated in the active cycle of registration and collection must be put back in line.
The war with the post office
There are more pending and lost cases than solutions on the horizon. Abbanoa, in fact, managed to get on a collision course with most of the subjects who handled bills and injunctions. The most significant dispute is with Poste Italiane, the state giant. The Abbanoa executives, the same ones who signed the secret letter, revoked his assignment for "non-fulfillment". The revocation of the number one in the sector is dated February 6, 2019. Poste Italiane, which in Italy holds 94.6% of the market, wasted no time: lawsuit against Abbanoa before the Court of Cagliari. Mediation was also attempted: failed from every point of view. In the meantime, Abbanoa did not lose heart and, in turn, reported Poste Italiane to the Court of Rome. It did not go well: the judge, with a sentence kept under wraps, rejected the request of the Sardinian water company and sentenced Abbanoa to even pay the court costs. Not satisfied, the Sardinian water lawyers try again: appealed sentence, hearing set for 12 September next. In the meantime, deserted tenders and new disputes follow one another, including the one that had seen the bills of users delivered and deposited in pizzerias and bars, bakeries and florists, all transformed into branches of the Abbanoa "mailing". Even in that case, on January 30, 2020, the revocation of the contract was triggered and new chaos.
Poste & Poste
The proposal of the executives, traveling to the board of directors, concludes with a proposal: entrusting the service to the Italian Post Office, precisely that of the judicial war, under a "universal service" until New Year's Eve. Too bad that a few days ago the Competition Authority was quite explicit towards Abbanoa: no favoritism and discrimination in the assignments of the service. Clear reference to the competitive advantage of Poste Italiane. The game is explosive: 300,000 tax injunctions and formal notice to be sent and one billion euros of credits to be collected. Abbanoa is with bills in his throat. And the postmen, for now, including those of the state, stay away. The chaos risks being perfect.