Listen up, Democratic attack on Bucci: "Funds removed from environmental monitoring of the project to be given out as consultancy fees"

The day after refusing to discuss a question from Democratic councillor Andrea Orlando on the case of labour exploitation at the caisson construction site for the breakwater – which is at the centre of a judicial investigation – the regional majority led by President Marco Bucci has approved a decree by the director general concerning Phase B of the breakwater's construction that is bound to spark controversy.

Technically, it is entitled: "Remodulation of the financial framework." In concrete terms, what emerges from the document's 10 pages is an evidently political decision to cut two million euros from environmental monitoring and redirect them to the contingency fund.

That is not all. The region is essentially recovering the 9 million euros in savings generated by the discount at which the Phase B contract was awarded (435 million instead of 444) for undefined expenditures falling under the heading "expenses for technical-administrative support activities for the RUP (the Single Procedure Manager, who is Port Authority director Marco Vaccari)." This budget line has risen from 7.5 million to 12 million and 899,000 euros.

It was Vaccari himself who recalculated the figures, as can be read in the following passage: "… engineer Marco Vaccari of the Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea transmitted the remodulated Financial Framework for subsequent acknowledgement by the Contracting Authority" – namely, the Liguria Region. The remodulation of the financial framework was made possible by "Regional Law of 18 May 2026, No. 5," which "amended paragraph 2 of Article 6 of Regional Law of 23 May 2024, No. 8, allowing the use of funds derived from the auction discount within the project's Financial Framework."

In other words, the money saved through the discount re-enters the contract through a backdoor created by a specially tailored regional law.

In detail, the original framework allocated 5 million euros for "environmental impact mitigation works and environmental monitoring costs." As of yesterday, that figure has dropped to 3 million. In return, the 2 million euros earmarked for "contingencies and acceleration bonuses" has risen to 8 million and 800,000.

Whatever happens – whether the project encounters obstacles or finishes ahead of schedule – the consortium that won the tender, led by the company BTP Infrastrutture, is protected either way.

Democratic regional councillor Simone D'Angelo, who has always followed the behind-the-scenes developments of the breakwater construction site, has a clear view of the matter: "The story of the new breakwater seems to repeat itself inexorably, even in Phase B. Money for consultancies, assignments and support structures is always found. For environmental monitoring, however, it never is. The new financial framework, which allocates over 5 million euros more for assignments and technical-administrative support activities while cutting environmental monitoring resources by 40%, is entirely incomprehensible, as well as irresponsible. For a project that continues to be dogged by doubts and critical issues, environmental controls should have been strengthened, not reduced. And while Phase A costs have already spiralled, the Phase B auction discount is being used to increase overhead expenditure, rather than to guarantee greater controls and stronger safeguards."

D'Angelo highlights the lack of transparency from the Region on the Dam issue: "All this while for over a month we have been waiting for Commissioner Bucci to come and report on the serious uncertainties regarding the stability of Phase A, criticisms that he himself has publicly acknowledged. And instead of receiving answers, we continue to witness an embarrassing buck-passing between Bucci the Commissioner and Bucci the President of the Region."