The absurd story of the 82 million to the Angelucci family

For the President of the Lazio Region, Francesco Rocca, the blame lies entirely with those who came before him, namely his predecessor Nicola Zingaretti and his Health Councillor Alessio D’Amato. For the centre-left, however, it was the governor’s inaction that led to this scandal. The fact is that the region will now have to pay €82.1 million to the San Raffaele healthcare organisation, run by Lega MP Antonio Angelucci and his son Giampaolo. The debt has been classified as an off-balance-sheet liability to be settled, and a council resolution has now authorised the payment. But who is right? Mistakes have been made on all sides in this affair.

It all began in 2010. Renata Polverini was in charge of the centre-right administration at Via Cristoforo Colombo. The region’s finances were in tatters and the health service had been under special administration since 2008. The region was forced to reorganise its hospital network. Cuts were necessary. These included 450 beds in the accredited private sector operated by the San Raffaele group. However, to prevent the cuts from having a serious impact on employment, in 2011 Polverini’s regional government entered into a framework agreement with Angelucci’s company to convert some of the beds being cut into other healthcare services. The agreement was based in part on a regional law – Law No. 6 of 2011 – which changed the rules governing the accreditation of private healthcare providers. However, this law was referred to the Constitutional Court by the government and, following lengthy discussions between the region and the Prime Minister’s Office, was substantially amended. This was one of the reasons why some of the new authorisations provided for in the framework agreement were not implemented by the region, which by then had come under the leadership of Nicola Zingaretti of the Democratic Party, who no longer considered them legitimate. In response to the region’s inaction, Angelucci’s group lodged an appeal with the Regional Administrative Court (TAR), seeking compensation of 21 million euros. However, in 2019, the Administrative Court ruled in favour of the region, arguing that Angelucci’s group did not have an absolute right to the full implementation of the agreement; that even regarding the legitimate authorisations, the region’s delays were justified by changes in the legislation; and that the damage had not been adequately proven, not least because some establishments had continued to operate on the basis of the licences they already held.

Angelucci, however, did not give up and lodged an appeal with the Council of State. In October 2023, the highest court of administrative law partially overturned the ruling. Whilst acknowledging, in fact, that not all authorisations were required to be granted automatically to Angelucci, the Council of State stated that this did not exempt the region from its obligation to conclude legitimate proceedings in a timely manner and to pay compensation for the damages caused by the delays. The quantification of the damages, however, was referred by the judges to the region, which was required to reach a settlement agreement with Angelucci’s group. The director of the region’s Health Department, Andrea Urbani, put the compensation at 3 million euros. However, Angelucci did not accept the settlement agreement. The case returned to court. The Council of State entrusted the quantification of the damages to a technical expert and, in a judgement published last July, ordered the region to pay Angelucci 60 million euros, plus 17 million in interest.

Rocca’s response to the court ruling is to acknowledge Angelucci’s claim and lodge a complaint with the Court of Auditors against Zingaretti and D’Amato for failing to comply with the 2011 framework agreement, as the Council of State has recognised that, regarding certain regional measures requested by the San Raffaele group, there have been delays of over a decade. The left, on the other hand, criticises the centre-right administration’s inaction. “From 2023 to 2026, the region did nothing,” says Massimiliano Valeriani, regional councillor for the PD and chair of the Regional Council’s Transparency Committee. “Why, after an initial offer was rejected by San Raffaele, did the region not at least try a second conciliation proposal? But above all, why did they not appeal to the Court of Cassation or request the revocation of the Council’s rulings?’ Furthermore, Valeriani continues: ‘The debt that the Rocca administration wishes to pay exceeds 83 million euros, rather than the 77 million stipulated in the ruling and certified by the Regional Legal Service, because it has decided to calculate it from the date of the Council of State’s first ruling – yet another blow to the citizens of Lazio. Delays, silence and poor decisions have increased the millions that will be taken away from the public health service only to end up in the coffers of a private operator’. In fact, the appeals to the Court of Cassation and the request for revocation will now be lodged, but, as the Councillor for the Budget, Giancarlo Righini, explained a few weeks ago, in the meantime the massive debt will be paid: “The administration will immediately instruct the Legal Service to lodge appeals both for revocation and before the Court of Cassation, but we will in any case pay the amount due, so as not to allow the interest to accrue,” said the Councillor.

Meanwhile, an investigation by Domani has forced President Rocca to clarify another strange affair. Between 2021 and 2023, the president received 190,000 euros from Crossmed, a company that trains doctors and healthcare professionals wishing to work in the United Arab Emirates. This is paradoxical for a politician who, as regional president, is asking the government for funds to bring doctors’ and nurses’ salaries up to standard and prevent them from leaving the regional and Italian public healthcare system, which is under increasing strain.