The wastage of the Melito Dam: 259 million euros in fiscal damage contested

It was supposed to solve the water problems of a vast area of Calabria, but the Melito dam has never been built. The infrastructure, included in the programme of strategic works for the Calabrian regional territory, was supposed to be one of the largest water interventions in the national panorama, which would have solved the long-standing issue of water shortage for half a million Calabrian citizens and hundreds of farms, cyclically affected by drought phenomena, and would have allowed the production of hydroelectric energy capable of satisfying the needs of about fifty municipalities downstream of the reservoir. None of this has ever happened.

Yet 259 million euros have been spent over the years, not counting the 102 million that have already been spent without accomplishing anything. Now the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Auditors is asking for an account and reason for the damage caused by that failure: both in terms of fiscal damage and in terms of environmental damage. These are the charges brought by the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Auditors against the Ionian-Catanzarese Land Reclamation Consortium (formerly the Alli - Punta di Copanello Land Reclamation Consortium) and, jointly and severally, against the two managers pro tempore, after a long, careful and meticulous investigation coordinated by the Regional Prosecutor Romeo Ermenegildo Palma and carried out by the Deputy Prosecutor General Fernando Gallone with the precious and decisive investigative contribution of the Catanzaro Guardia di Finanza military.

In particular, the Regional Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Auditors sued the Land Reclamation Consortium in the person of the liquidator and legal representative, the Rup from 2003 to 2015 and the general manager from 1998 to 2014, while it was not possible to proceed, as they were deceased, against the president and legal representative of the Consortium and the pro tempore designer and director of works.

The dam on the Melito river (or 'Lago Azzurro') was to be built between the municipalities of Gimigliano, Sorbo San Basile and Fossato Serralta, all in the province of Catanzaro. The investigations, delegated by the Public Prosecutor's Office to the Catanzaro Economic and Financial Police Unit, allowed 'to unveil numerous profiles of fiscal responsibility on the part of the recipients of the summons,' explained the Gdf men in a note. The Guardia di Finanza officers ascertained that, since the handover of the works, the technical bodies of the Ministry of Infrastructure - Servizio Italiano Dighe (Italian Dams Service), which is responsible for rigorously verifying the perfect construction of dams in Italy - had been challenged on the grounds that the initial project was deficient and that major additions were needed to ensure the perfect seal of the artificial reservoir, which would otherwise be dangerous for the populations downstream of the works. Project integrations which, although carried out by the same designer responsible for the original project deemed deficient by the Servizio Dighe (a designer who has since passed away), were never deemed suitable for overcoming the safety problems of a project which, pending the numerous disputes brought against the company awarded the contract, continued to result in the advancement of expenditure up to a good 102 million euro for a project that was already unfeasible at the time because it lacked the necessary authorisations.