The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, was acquitted of the charge of abuse of office in the proceeding on the contract for the Service Plate of the Universal Exposition.
The investigating judge Giovanna Campanile decided it. The accusation concerned the direct assignment, without tender, to Mantovani spa of the supply of 6 thousand trees to furnish the exhibition site. According to the judge, the then managing director and extraordinary commissioner of Expo 2015 spa did not commit any abuse of office in not carrying out a European tender, so much so that the acquittal already arrived at the preliminary hearing "because the fact does not exist".
I heard the mayor is happy he says historical truth has been restored. This decision demonstrated that the assignment was legitimate and no competition was necessary,” said the lawyer Salvatore Scuto.
For Sala however, the other Expo process remains standing: the one relating to the accusation of "false material and ideological" for the 13-day backdating of the document which on May 30, 2012 made it possible to modify two of the - incompatible - commissioners of the tender for the Plate without restarting the entire procedure, which would have risked blowing up the schedule. In this case, the mayor of Milan has chosen the immediate procedure since May.
