Former prime minister Giuseppe Conte, who was under investigation by the Bergamo prosecutor’s office due to the Kovid-19 outbreak, Lombardy governor Attilio Fontana, ex-health minister Roberto Speranza expressed their will to immediately clarify what happened. However, the investigation by the Lombard judges is not concerned with the economic costs that accompanied the outbreak’s entry into Italy and who may have benefited, because of its territorial jurisdiction. Rather, it would be important for those in government to show the same willingness to clarify before Parliament – ​​and if necessary the judiciary – the reasons why certain choices that certainly increased public spending, and thus the burden on all citizens, had already been tried in those months. pain and mourning. All this happened at the beginning of March 2020, that is, before the prices of masks, lung ventilators and other medical auxiliary products rose in the world market.

A demonstration is given by this document from the Council Presidency, available to Today.it (photo above). We are on March 5, 2020. The total death toll on Tuesday is still 148, almost all in Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Veneto. Doctors and nurses, as well as citizens battling the first epidemics, desperately need masks. A few days ago, an Indian company offered Italy five million in a three-layer surgical model. Total price: 1.7 million euros, 34 cents each. And payment on delivery. It would be the first major burden to deal with the infection. The seller does not want an advance because he knows he is doing business directly with the Italian government. And so far, very good.

limited company

However, on March 5, a memo signed by a director of the Prime Minister’s Office and Civil Protection official informs the Indian company that it has “signed a contract” with a limited liability company in Rome for economic aspects. The undersigned undertakes, on behalf of the Administration, that the said replenishment will continue to be paid. The first question any sane person can ask is: Why should the Italian government be represented by a limited liability company at such a difficult moment?

But the role the Council Presidency assigns to this srl is even more unusual: The company must actually advance the one million seven hundred thousand euros needed to pay for the supply of masks on behalf of the government. Therefore, one can ask himself a second question: Since when has the government relied on a limited liability company to advance its payments, assigning it roles generally recognized by banks and financial companies? How much is the interest? Who decided on them in the absence of a race?

And Customs stops the investigation

Maybe you think it’s a financial issue. But no. The company, whose capital is about fifty thousand euros, declared that at that time it was engaged in “wholesale production and sale of clothing, souvenirs, gadgets and advertising materials” and “various types of contracts for services, sports, shows”. and demonstrations”. In short, it has nothing to do with medical supplies and hospital supplies.

It is an important document for understanding what is causing it. From that moment on, srl, unidentified intermediaries, offshore companies step in and impose their own tariffs on the state. The deal is so lucrative that other companies are also starting to import uncertified or fake-certified masks into Italy: an alleged scam discovered by Customs, but the investigations stopped immediately, as an investigation by Today.it reported: according to a recorded interview. This is what politics wanted.

But these first five million pieces will never reach their destination at Fiumicino airport. The shipment will be made for two weeks. The price of surgical masks, meanwhile, will rise from 34 cents to almost two euros. On 20 March, the Prime Minister’s chosen srl cancels the order and informs the Indian company that “we are buying at much more competitive prices in other parts of the world”. Competitive for whom? For the state or for many intermediaries?

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