133mn shortfall in Naples coffers due to uncollected rents

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 8 - Failure to collect rents from municipal properties over the years has resulted in a shortfall of 133 million euro in the coffers of Naples city council, the public prosecutor's office of the Campania regional audit court said on Wednesday.
    The claim came in a notification order served by Carabinieri police on seven suspects including the headmistress of a local school, city council employees and employees of the in-house company Napoli Servizi for allegedly failing to contest "the clamorous delays in collection of Napoli Servizi, allowing the accumulation over time of significant and stratospheric arrears".
    The seven are accused of causing over 92,000 euro in damage in relation to uncollected rent and unpaid water bills on the school caretaker's house, which was occupied illegally in 1988. The investigators said there are similar situations of unlawful occupation involving unpaid rent at other Naples schools.
    The audit court denounced the "serious negligence" on the part of the Naples authorities "in the management of its real estate assets and in the collection of rents and/or occupation indemnities" despite the so-called Pact for Naples involving conditional state funding. (ANSA).