«We wanted the regattas, how can you say that we don't want it anymore? I didn't turn anyone away. I only demanded that the law be respected: in Italy there is a procurement code which provides for advance payments and not the delivery of an amount immediately in full. Anyone is welcome to prove otherwise. Evidently the conditions of our laws did not fall down to the organizers. And in the end there were no essential documents to complete the process. It's time to stop thinking that Sardinians have a nose ring ».
Thus the regional councilor for Tourism Gianni Chessa , speaking of the America's Cup World Series , which – contrary to hopes – will not be held in Cagliari.
On farewell to the competitions in the Golfo degli Angeli, Chessa explained: «The organizers of Ace could have clicked on the Region's telematic platform and made a proposal but it didn't arrive. We tried until this morning. And now the definancing of the sum we have made available, 6.1 million, including VAT, inevitably starts. It will therefore be the Regional Council that decides how to use that figure ».
On the transfer of the matches to Spain, the commissioner clarified: «It's not a poker table, you don't use Sardinia to relaunch. The general agreement was signed in August 2022. But the contract was never signed. Cagliari - the commissioner reconstructed - had been identified as the first stage of the regattas. I only learned from the press that the organizers had chosen Vilanova, in Spain, as their first date».
The Region, therefore, felt bypassed and at that point the protest started, with a letter in which the possibility of definancing was mentioned for the first time. Then, in the following days, the reopening of negotiations was useless, with Ace finally formally giving up, declining the last offer from the Solinas junta.
THE REPLY
«Procurement rules?» , replies the group leader of the Progressives Francesco Agus, «but if the very large part of the expenses made by the tourism councilorship in the last 4 years has been carried out through repeated, unjustified and in some cases clearly in contrast with the basic principles that should regulate all public expenditure".
“Certain statements cross the threshold of the ridiculous. We will be able to further investigate this issue as soon as they send us the data we have formally requested. For now, the ones we already have in our possession confirm the fact that the rules in that councilorship were often seen as an option", he continues, recalling the " rules that would have made it possible to allocate six million euros without a tender to an association not even formally set up to organize various possible sporting events» or those which «allowed the disbursement of resources for major events (including the Rally of Sardinia, in particular) despite the fact that a law allocating them had not yet been approved» . Or again «those that allowed click days without any assessment of the quality of the financed events».
(Unioneonline/lf)
