This summer only 5 helicopters, out of the 14 requested by the Region, will be available to the Forestry Corps to fight forest fires . On Tuesday 19 March, at 12, in the Towers of Viale Trento, in Cagliari, envelopes of the new competition were opened.
Of the five three-year lots (from 2024 to 2026) for the air service, only two were awarded: lot 3 for three helicopters for the bases of Anela, Farcana and Pula was awarded to the Salerno company "E+S Air", while lot 5 for two vehicles at the Villasalto base was assigned to the Piedmontese "Eliossola". The other three lots were snubbed by the airlines . Lot 1 for Fenosu's Super Puma was unsuccessful; lot 2 for 4 helicopters to be deployed at the bases of Limbara, Alà dei Sardi, Fenosu and Marganai; lot 4 for 3 vehicles for the bases of San Cosimo, Bosa and Sorgono.
It seems obvious that something isn't working, almost a short circuit, between those who have to indicate the technical requirements of the tender and those who have to award it. The encore to the flop of January 6th by the Forestry Corps took place on February 28th when the 10.5 million euro procedure (excluding VAT) for the search for an Erickson S-64 Air Crane equipped to put out fires expired , by the Civil Protection – Emergency Overcoming Service. This too is an announced and easily predictable failure . These helicopters have an enormous carrying capacity (9,000 liters of water) but are particularly slow and expensive. For the transfer from Oregon alone, 600,000 euros are needed for the outward journey and the same amount for the return journey ; they have an autonomy of two hours and cost 100,000 euros per day , with a minimum of 150 days of guaranteed use per year. Not a public tender, but an "Exploratory notice for expression of interest for the three-year rental including piloting and maintenance services" where, however, neither the flight hours nor the periods of employment were indicated. No one participated in the "blind" tender where the airlines did not have the opportunity to quantify the margins . Now the ball passes back into the hands of the CRC which will have to rework the procedure, even if the gap between the allocation and the market seems unbridgeable.
Another serious unknown hangs over the firefighting campaign. The Region would not have obtained the certifications for the adaptation established by ENAC on the helicopter pads . Without authorization from the National Civil Aviation Authority , only 50 takeoffs and 50 landings per year are permitted . A truly small number, for bases that in high season record dozens of movements per day.
The Region, after the two unsuccessful tenders of 6 January (Forestry Corps, 13 vehicles) and 28 February (Civil Protection, one helicopter), had taken action by reducing the number of aircraft for each lot , so that even the smallest companies could participate. A solution that did not give the expected results , only separate offers from two different companies arrived in the offices of the "Regional Procurement Centre" (Crc). A failure that has sparked a "war" between the managements of the Forestry Corps and the Central Procurement Office who accuse each other . Nobody wants to be left holding the bag in a "hot" moment not only from the point of view of the fires but, above all, from the political point of view, with the installation of the Council led by Alessandra Todde and the consequent changes in the top management of the control rooms.
Riccardo Porcu is the general director of the Crc. «It is not up to us to establish the starting price and the technical requirements for the tender» , he stated. " We limit ourselves to calling and awarding a tender drawn up by the client which, in this case, is the Forestry Corps ." Porcu distances himself from the choices on the firefighting campaign. «We operated as a contracting authority by delegation without, therefore, any margin for intervention on aspects and circumstances relating to the merit of the service subject to the tender», he writes in a note sent to the Forestry Corps. «As is known, in fact, the CRC operates by delegation and, consequently, implements the elements and technical requirements communicated by the delegating Administration. In light of the above, and the problems described, we ask to know what the intentions are for the future of this Directorate in relation to the assignment of the services in question". Porcu closes the letter with a polemical invitation, hoping that " our Directorates will be able to collaborate to support their respective work so as to prevent the dissemination of instrumental information regarding alleged inefficiencies on the part of the Crc ".