They are the entrepreneur Paolo Tronci, from Cagliari, and the former medical director of the Aou of Sassari, Mario Cristoforo Sotgiu, the two arrested by the Guardia di Finanza as part of the investigation by the Sassari Prosecutor's Office into a contract for the supply of medical equipment intended for the Turritan AOU which investigators are convinced was rigged. Five recipients of precautionary measures in total.
Tronci, defended by the lawyers Nicola Satta and Guido Manca Bitti , is a very well-known entrepreneur in the capital: owner of a company supplying medical devices, AB Med., he is also known in the world of tennis, which he has been frequenting for decades, and of beach tennis. Sotgiu, on the other hand – defended by Letizia Doppiu Anfossi – has been retired for a few years: he was the president of the awarding commission.
The others involved are Maria Manuela Tronci (Paolo's sister), Antonio Alberto Mario Lumbau and Antonio Pinna, the latter both from Sassari.
According to the accusation - the charge in the order signed by the investigating judge Giovanni Paolo Piana is disturbance of the freedom of the procedure for choosing the contractor - the two, together with the other suspects, would have directed the award - which took place in July 2021 - of a contract worth over 1.8 million, divided into 21 lots, for the rental of biomedical equipment intended for the Aou Ophthalmology Clinic in Sassari.
A note states that "there would have been conduct that would have influenced the tender process and the methods of choice of the contractor by the public administration through collusion and other fraudulent means aimed at establishing the technical requirements of the lots to be awarded".
The investigation started from the complaint presented by another company that had been excluded from the award. The order also describes the role of a former employee of Tronci, who had been invited to deliver a sealed envelope to Sotgiu - which for the investigators contained instructions on how to write the clarifications on the tender - but he, suspecting something unclear , he refused.
The defense lawyers of those arrested (Nicola Satta, Manca Bitti and Doppiu) are evaluating the documents and do not rule out the submission of a request to the Court of Review to request the cancellation of the house arrest, considered «an untimely and disproportionate precautionary measure compared to the facts contested and to the personality and reputation of the suspects".
(Unioneonline/E.Fr.)