A long legal battle for professional services before 2013 ends in the Council. Councilor Cicala: “With respect to the initial claim, we have found an agreement”
MESSINA – Last Thursday in the city council the lawyer Rosario Cucinotta was recognized for 1.5 million in off-balance sheet debts. Councilor Roberto Cicala presented the resolution. Eleven in favor and eight abstentions among the councilors: the proposal was approved. And immediate enforcement was voted with 16 votes in favor and two abstentions. This brings to an end a long dispute between the lawyer and the Municipality of Messina. The agreement, which councilor Cicala reached together with the lawyer Francesco Saija, the mayor’s expert, provides for the payment of the amount of 1 million and 451 thousand euros compared, previously, to a total claim by the lawyer Cucinotta of over 5 million for compensation, interest and revaluation.
An off-balance sheet debt for professional services in the twenty years before 2013
This is the comment of councilor Cicala: “On 11 December, an off-balance sheet debt was recognized for professional services carried out by the professional in the twenty years preceding 2013. This debt falls into the category (art. 194, paragraph 1 letter e) of the Tuel) of services requested by the Municipality without having committed the sum in the budget. A story at least 15 years long finally comes to an end, during which the professional presented various warnings and complaints against the Municipality, its administrators and politicians who, over time, they had not taken steps to include in the budgets the amounts relating to his professional services”.
“The administration is proceeding towards a rapid exit from the rebalancing plan”
Cicala continues: “Together with the expert lawyer Saija, whom I thank on behalf of the entire administration with the mayor at the head, we carried out a long, difficult and complicated negotiation with the lawyer Cucinotta, who had never agreed to discuss and evaluate a definitive agreement with those who preceded me over the years. An agreement which, however, was reached in recent months, also thanks to the availability of the lawyer. And which provides for the professional’s renunciation of any other claim for the services rendered in the period of reference, to the accessories requested, such as interest and revaluation, and the consequent reduction of the original claim to 1 million and 451 thousand euros”.
He concludes: “The agreement allows for a significant reduction in the total amount of debts recorded in the rebalancing plan which thus drops to around 3 million, for the debts referred to in letter e) (debts without commitment in the balance sheet). And to just over 7 million, for those referred to in letter a) (debts arising from final sentences). Always remembering that the debts registered when De Luca took office were 550 million, today we can reiterate that the administration is proceeding more and more quickly towards the rapid conclusion and exit from the Rebalancing Plan”.
