In Rome, the problem of waste is getting worse every day, creating inconvenience for citizens as well as the first political difficulties for new mayor Virginia Raggi. In the streets of the capital, for weeks now, the inhabitants have had to deal with a more inefficient collection than usual, which also gives a dirty and malodorous image of the city precisely in one of the periods of the year with the highest number of tourists. The shortcomings of the Ama, the municipal company that should deal with Roman waste, certainly cannot be attributed to the administration that has just taken office, but Raggi still finds herself under accusation for the person to whom she has chosen to entrust the role of councilor to the environment.
THE MURARO CASE
This is Paola Muraro, who in recent days has been targeted by accusations of conflict of interest for the 12 years of consultancy carried out right at the Ama house, which from 2004 to last June earned her one million and 136 thousand euros. In 2015 alone, Muraro collected 115 euros gross for his role as consultant on the plants and another 165 euros gross for technical consultancy on one side in the dispute with the Colari consortium of Manlio Cerroni, ras of Roman waste. An assignment received in 2014, when the general manager of Ama was Giovanni Fiscon, then involved in Mafia Capitale and currently on trial.
“They also wrote about the million euros for my consultancy in 12 (twelve) years (from 2004 to 2016) – defended Muraro on Grillo's blog – I do the math in my pocket: it corresponds to an average of 90.880 euros per gross of taxes, social security, insurance and expenses for carrying out the assignment. Considering the hours worked for my professional activity, a gross salary of 76 euros per day is obtained. Does that sound crazy to you?”
But, as mentioned, the new commissioner also provided partisan technical consultancy in the disputes. Not to mention that, over the years, Muraro has also been a consultant to private companies such as Bioman, a company that since 2013 has allegedly taken 65 million euros from the Ama.
In the light of these data, it seems that Beppe Grillo is restless and ponders the possibility of unloading Muraro. For the moment, however, Raggi continues to defend his councilor: “He is doing an excellent job – he said – It seems bizarre to me that the Democratic Party is asking for his resignation. Considering that Ama has practically been the prerogative of the Pd and Pdl for years, it makes you smile a little today that they come to make controversies”.
But the outgoing president of Ama, Daniele Fortini, spared no attacks: “Why is the first blitz carried out at Rocca Cencia and not at Salario? – he told Agora – Why do the mayor and Muraro go to Rocca Cencia with Muraro saying 'I have nothing to do with it, here I have always reported that things are not going'? In Rocca Cencia there is an investigation that could concern you, not the salary. Why do they push me to use Cerroni's Rocca Cencia plant? I think the mayor is alien to these attitudes, I think that in some cases it has been manipulated by initiatives not his. There is a coup, it is aimed at removing those in Ama who create obstacles to very obvious designs. Which? In the two confidential meetings, which we reported to the judiciary, that engineer Filippi and I had with the lawyer Manlio Cerroni at the AssoAmbiente headquarters, he was very explicit. When we claimed Ama's autonomy, the right to become a leading company in the waste cycle, he replied: 'You are deluded, they chase you away'”.
CANTONE: TOO MANY BUSINESS, THE ANTI-CORRUPTION OFFICER IS READY TO TAKE CARE OF THE ROME CASE
Meanwhile, the president of the Anti-Corruption Authority, Raffaele Cantone, is also part of the controversy: "The waste sector in Rome could be the object of interest of the Anac - he said in an interview with Il Messaggero -, as happened for Puglia , for Sicily and for other realities. Waste is one of the biggest business that revolves around the public administration: the real issue is to overcome the centrality of landfills. Cerroni had the advantage of being able to solve the waste problem immediately, but if you depend on landfills, you always need to build more or, as has happened, expand them dramatically. In Rome, the system of dependence on landfills has created this situation which is there for all to see”.
On the AMA side, Cantone continues, "we have verified how cumbersome the system is and how much a company is too big to be able to function easily", while the outgoing president Daniele Fortini is "a very competent guy: I am convinced that he is a professional who knows the material well. But I refrain from judging how he operated, also because he arrived at the Ama for a very short time. Finding a situation that was known to all. Above all in terms of customer recruitment and contracts, which were also given to Buzzi and other subjects linked to Mafia Capitale ".
RAGGI'S RECIPE FOR WASTE
In this context, citizens' practical problems remain to be solved. "Roma Capitale must proceed with the reorganization of Ama spa - said the new mayor Raggi during the presentation of the programmatic lines of his council in the Capitoline assembly -, which in recent years has recklessly not equipped itself with the necessary plant infrastructures, offering opportunities to groups private individuals and to Acea spa to enter Ama's own business sector. In fact, Ama spa has been relegated to carrying out mere collection, transshipment, transport and landfilling activities, with enormous costs for equipping containers, vehicles and vehicles".
Raggi then recalled the current numbers of Ama spa: “Over 600 million euros in debt, of which 200 million to suppliers, over 35 million euros a year to the pool of banks that supports it; 250 million costs for the export of waste; about 7500 employees; a fleet of vehicles purchased for over 200 million in 2009 and 2010”.
The mayor then explained that urban waste management policy in Rome “will be based on the first three steps of the European hierarchy: reduction, reuse and recovery of materials. The objectives are necessarily pursued by adopting the following concepts: waste prevention and reduction; differentiated collection and recycling; monitoring and control; management of Ama, which suffers from high industrial costs per ton treated and per ton of separate waste collected and has low efficiency indexes in street cleaning and maintenance of roadside bins. The entire Ama spa plant fleet has been suffering from maintenance deficits for three years”.
