The Sangiuliano-Boccia mess is a problem for Meloni: irresponsibility, confusion, embarrassment and some lies in the matter of the ministerial assignment

The Sangiuliano-Boccia mess

Let’s try to summarize and reason about the eventful Sangiuliano-Boccia affair. A young professional, outside of the public administration, dexplicitly declares that it is the recipient of an expert assignment received from a Minister of the Republic, within the staff of direct collaboration of the Ministry of Culture. How do these types of relationships work? The ministers, when taking office, establish support and trusted offices. This is established in Article 14, paragraph 2 of Legislative Decree 165/2001: “The Minister makes use of direct collaboration offices, with exclusive support and coordination skills with the administration”.

These offices may include “public employees, including those on leave of absence, out of role or command; collaborators hired with fixed-term contracts governed by private law; experts and consultants for particular professional skills and specializations with coordinated and continuous collaboration assignments”.

The staff of the direct collaboration offices expires with the end of the minister’s mandate. In short, the good old rule of the public competition to access the PA, established by Article 97 of the Constitution, has been overcome with this law at least for this type of assignments aimed at temporary collaborators, experts and consultants, as for many managerial positions, often filled by private citizens who have never passed the selective tests of the competitions. One thing must be said in this regard: our beautiful Constitutional Charter reminds us that public offices are organized “so that the smooth running and impartiality of the administration are ensured”. This is a reflection that needs to be made, given the ease with which Presidents, ministers, undersecretaries, mayors, etc., hand out tasks to friends and friends of friends.

But let’s get back to our couple from the Ministry of Culture. Mrs. Boccia announces that she is the minister’s consultant for major events, or something like that. And it is demonstrated by dozens of photos, documents and emails that the lady moves around Italy with ease, often together with the minister himself, boasting about this role of particular trust entrusted to her by the administration.

But at a certain point in this hot summer the ministry wakes up and denies that Mrs. Boccia holds a position. But no, the interested party claims, the minister has signed, the assignment only needs to be formalized. Not at all, the minister counters, the assignment was revoked (it existed then!) and in any case the ministry never spent a single euro on the alleged consultant, the taxpayer’s money was not squandered.

This is the ping pong of declarations. But… there is a but: it has been ascertained that Mrs. Boccia has participated in various meetings up and down the country, announcing (or boasting?) high-sounding positionshow would she have moved around the pleasant places she frequented, given that she claims to have never paid any expenses out of her own pocket? Who would have paid the travel and accommodation costs? Presumably the ministry must have prepared the mission document for each destination, in order to cover all the participants’ expenses. And this is the first controversial point.: missions cannot be arranged for people outside the administration, unless they have a specific role within the administration itself.

Iron rule of state accountingwhich, in the case of members of the direct collaboration offices, also extends to state flights, when foreseen. Outsiders are not allowed on state planes and helicopters. Parenthesis: think about what happened when Prime Minister Berlusconi hosted the so-called olgettine on the planes of the fleet of the Italian Republic! But, at least in the case we are analyzing, we are not talking about state flights.

Furthermore, and this is not a secondary aspect, there is also the question of liability in the event of accidents during the journey or the mission. Those who do not hold a position do not have insurance coverage.

The whole issue that is being hotly debated these days regarding the Sangiuliano-Boccia affair essentially boils down to an ethical problem. Do the political leaders of the public administration (a president, a minister, a mayor, etc.) feel a sense of responsibility towards the country and its citizens? Or do they bask in the pure exercise of power that allows them to appoint whoever they want at the expense of valid internal resources that also exist and are numerous?

We are not authorized to express an opinion on the abilities or professionalism of Mrs. Boccia, as we do not have sufficient knowledge on the subject, but is it possible that a person for whom an official assignment has not yet been formalized (and I fear that at this point it will never happen), goes around announcing herself as a consultant and holder of prestigious positions in the world of fashion and major events?

And above allit is foolhardy to involve in confidential correspondence, with the dissemination of documents that cannot be in the public domain, a person for whom there is no official investiture. This is what happened with the documents relating to the preparation of the G7 Culture, which was planned in Pompeii this September.

Preparing a G7 involves organizational and communication aspects, but also and above all security. Never before have confidential details about the ministers’ programs and movements been disclosed so casually, when there is still no official and certain control of all aspects of protection and safeguarding.

We do not know whether the minister will be forced to resign, but an immediate consequence of what scandalously happened is the announcement, already present on the official website of the G7 Italy 2024, that the ministerial meeting on Culture has been hastily moved to Naples. Goodbye Pompeii, which is also the city of origin of Mrs. Boccia.

Politics is very often cloaked in superficiality and arrogance. The management of Public Affairs is instead above all responsibility and competence. It is a topic on which President Meloni and the Government should seriously reflect.

*formerly responsible for the Office of State Protocol and for the Honours of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers which has seen seven prime ministers parade through Palazzo Chigi, from Silvio Berlusconi to Mario Draghi, passing through Mario Monti, Enrico Letta, Matteo Renzi, Paolo Gentiloni, Giuseppe Conte.