Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
SYRACUSE – The dispute over the legal nature of Aretusacque, the public-private joint venture tasked with managing the integrated water service in the province of Syracuse for the next 30 years, is not only unresolved but has now taken on new institutional and legal dimensions.
Hot on the heels of a statement from the company’s supervisory board comes a counter-reply from Luca Cannata, national MP for Fratelli d’Italia and vice-chair of the Budget Committee in the Chamber of Deputies. He reveals an irreconcilable internal conflict between the company’s own bodies and demands immediate accountability from politicians and oversight authorities.
‘Irreconcilable divide between management board and supervisory board’
“I note the supervisory board’s response, which confirms how necessary it was to raise this issue through my parliamentary questions and requests for access to documents,” Cannata begins. “Today, a serious conflict between the company’s own bodies has come to light: the legal opinion obtained by the ATI recognises the company as publicly controlled, yet the management board continues formally to assert the opposite.”
Cannata cites an official document to support his position: “In a note dated 14 October 2026 (ref. no. 1813/26), addressed to me and also sent to the ATI and the supervisory board, Aretusacque reiterated its interpretation, explicitly describing itself as a ‘publicly owned but non-controlled company’ to limit general civic access to documents. We are facing a split that cannot be dismissed as a mere theoretical dispute: it determines which transparency, procurement and oversight rules have been applied up to now.”
‘ATI mayors have been sidelined. Anac and Court of Auditors must step in’
The MP criticises the institutional handling of the affair, condemning the failure to involve the mayors of the Syracuse province, who are tasked with safeguarding their territories ahead of the next three decades of water management.
“It is incomprehensible that, in the face of a conflict of this magnitude, the ATI Assembly of Mayors has not been urgently convened,” presses the FdI MP. “The supervisory board proposes involving the Court of Auditors. The Court of Auditors is welcome, but it cannot be seen as an alternative to intervention by the National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC). The two institutions carry out distinct and complementary checks.”
“I demand that the ATI’s legal opinion, the management board’s notes, the articles of association and the shareholders’ agreements be sent immediately to ANAC. We cannot take on a 30-year responsibility for public water with uncertainty over the rules and mayors excluded from decisions. I will continue my scrutiny until there are documented answers and guarantees for the families of Syracuse,” Cannata concludes.
