The Court of Auditors reprimands the auditors of the Municipality of Catania: "Data on the 2024 financial statement never sent, it is a serious violation"

A reprimand in full Court of Auditors style. And, when it happens, it is never pleasant for the Municipality of Catania. Always due to that famous story of economic-financial distress, which troubles the thoughts of the administration and the city councilors, who in recent days have been able to read the content of resolution number 17 from the accounting magistracy.

The Control Section for the Sicilian Region met last February 17. But the outcome of the meeting only arrived a few days ago. And it is, indeed, a reprimand. This time more directed at the municipal administration than at the board of auditors of Palazzo degli Elefanti, who allegedly did not respond to the control questionnaire on the 2024 final budget.

The Court of Auditors, in fact, among the tools it has at its disposal to monitor the economic-financial performance of public administration, also has that of questionnaires: a series of questions to answer in order to have a general picture of the state of the palace's finances. In the resolution from a few days ago, it is stated that on May 5, 2025, the regional period for the compilation of the 2024 final budget opened. A date communicated by the Court of Auditors to the accounting review body of the municipality.

Almost a year later, however, the municipality's auditors allegedly have not yet filled out anything. And this despite a reminder sent on January 14, 2026, "to which the Review Body did not respond," it states in the resolution of the accounting magistracy. "It is evident - the Court laments - the importance of a complete and timely compilation and transmission of the review body's questionnaire report, in order to allow the regional control section to fulfill its institutional task of safeguarding the economic unity of the Republic and coordinating public finance." Hence, it follows that "the failure to send the questionnaires in question or the serious delay in their transmission constitutes, therefore, a serious violation of a specific legal obligation."

In short, it is not an obligation to be taken lightly. Hence the order contained in the resolution: for the auditors to comply, for the municipal administration to put them in a position to do so, and for the City Council "for evaluations of its own exclusive competence." Among which is also the evaluation of the revocation of the assignment to the accounting review body.

The 2024 budget report was approved on September 23, 2025 and was the first after the Extraordinary Liquidation Body, which was established to remedy the disasters of the economic-financial crisis, had completed its work. It was, in short, a report that carried within it the seeds of the future. And on which now looms a dispute that, instead, brings the mind back to the past.