Modica and the Budget Controversy, Monisteri: "Ruffino Seems to Be Groping in the Dark"

The mayor of Modica, Maria Monisteri, firmly intervenes against the city councilor Ippolito Alessio Ruffino, president of the Budget Committee, accusing him of poor knowledge of accounting issues and a lack of rigor in institutional dialogue.

“After 11 and a half years as a city councilor and two and a half years as president of the Budget Committee, the least that can be expected from councilor Ippolito Alessio Ruffino is that he knows what he writes and why he writes it. Instead, with every public ‘outing’ of his, I discover with less and less surprise that he is groping in the dark on the topics he raises at best, when he is not completely disregarding the logic of debate and dialogue. In the statement sent in these hours, councilor Ippolito Alessio Ruffino demonstrates once again - I have lost count of his empty statements and I regret it and I apologize because as the budget delegate, I should have kept track of them... - that he has not the slightest understanding of what it means to draft such an important document as the Stably Balanced Budget.

On the merits, Monisteri recalls the recent vote in the Senate on the Milleproroghe and the absence of the extension from 10 to 15 years for the installment plan of the Liquidity Advance Fund (Fal) for distressed entities, with the consequent obligation to include the repayment starting from the beginning of the hypothesis, for Modica in 2023. “The only correct thing he writes is that the vote in the Senate on the Milleproroghe did not incorporate the amendment that aimed to extend the repayment period of the Liquidity Advance Fund (Fal) for distressed local entities from 10 to 15 years and simultaneously postponed the allocation in the budget of the Fal repayment to 2026, which instead must be included from the year the hypothesis begins, that is, for Modica, the year 2023. I believe that this wait was necessary out of respect for Modica, its citizens, and for that sense of great responsibility that I feel every day in managing an important public entity like our municipality. I clearly note that councilor Ippolito Alessio Ruffino has not understood the importance of the amendment proposed by Anci national - and not just by mayor Monisteri... - to assist financially distressed entities and, consequently, their communities.

For two and a half years, I have been waiting for Ruffino to request a meeting with me as a city councilor and/or as the president of the Budget Committee; but my wait is in vain because there is no trace, either through official channels or shortcuts, of such a request. And it makes me think that it is not due to a lack of arguments to present to me in my role as mayor and/or budget delegate..”

The mayor also dismisses the hypothesis of administrative stalemate and announces a quick timeline for the arrival in the chamber of the Stably Balanced Budget, after discussions with the councilors and the commissioner ad acta, Giovanni Cocco. “Finally - concludes the mayor - councilor Ippolito Alessio Ruffino, president of the Budget Committee (sic!), seems to perceive an administrative paralysis that simply does not exist and that exists only in his imagination as an opposition member. One might think of a perception of a reality all his own, not supported by facts, born only from political bitterness. The Stably Balanced Budget will arrive in the chamber soon, but not before having submitted it to the attention of all councilors so that they are fully aware and therefore after a discussion in the presence of the commissioner ad acta, Dr. Giovanni Cocco, who continues to meticulously follow every step of the drafting of the proposal and is in continuous contact with us. As for the “basic rules of institutional and democratic dialogue” that Ruffino longs for, I know them well, I apply them every day with those who show courtesy and respect for roles; I do not shy away from them and my door is always open to every institutional representative of our city.”