Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
“The Free association of municipalities of Syracuse (the former province) has become the symbol of a system that stripped provinces of the resources they need to carry out their functions. The government must step in with extraordinary measures, because citizens, schools, secondary roads and territorial safety are paying the price of this collapse.” So said Filippo Scerra, the Five Star Movement MP, who submitted a parliamentary question to the ministers of the interior, economy and finance, once again highlighting the dire financial situation of the Free association of municipalities of Syracuse.
More than a decade after its financial collapse, the Syracuse body is still struggling to overcome the burden of default, “also and above all because of the mechanism of forced levies on provincial revenue and the lack of adequate compensatory resources for Sicilian local authorities. A situation that risks compromising essential services,” Scerra said in a criminal complaint.
The consequences are particularly worrying for an area that relies on the Free association of municipalities to maintain over 1,300 kilometres of provincial roads, often affected by hydrogeological issues, to ensure the safety of secondary schools and to protect environmentally valuable areas such as the Ciane-Saline di Siracusa nature reserve.
“Given this critical situation, I have asked the government to break the financial deadlock of the provinces in default by eliminating the forced levy on current revenue and guaranteeing the bodies the resources they need to perform their functions. Furthermore, for the specific case of Syracuse, I have urged extraordinary financial intervention, in coordination with the Region of Sicily. Only then will it be possible to restore operational capacity to bodies that, although they have returned to elected leadership, risk being unable to exercise their mandate in practice, with direct repercussions on roads, schools and environmental protection.”
