Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, 11 April 2021 – The municipal administration intends to re-establish the truth about the facts which in recent days, in the wake of television and radio broadcasts and press articles, have been falsely reconstructed and will proceed through legal action against those responsible for having spread false and defamatory news about story of the resignation of Dr. Antonio Barbato and the appointment of the current Commander of the local Police.

Pretextuality and unfoundedness of the thesis put forward

To have a clear picture, free of omissions, the story will be retraced in detail.
First of all, however, we intend to highlight the unfoundedness of the basic thesis supported by Doctor Barbato, and endorsed by some journalistic reports, according to which the appointment of the current Commander would be at the center of a "serious exchange of favours" (we cite one of these services) between the Mayor and the Public Prosecutor's Office of Milan.

It is sufficient to observe that the Milan Prosecutor's Office requested the dismissal of all the facts connected to the management of the Expo in January 2016, over a year and a half before the "Barbato case" broke out (July 2017), but above all well before Sala himself became Mayor of Milan (June 2016).

Differently, the General Prosecutor's Office of Milan - an investigating body different from the Prosecutor's Office - had entered Sala in the register of suspects at the end of 2016, in relation to the episode of backdating of an act relating to a tender procedure, requesting his indictment in January 2018.

Therefore it is completely clear that, since the Milan Prosecutor's Office requested the dismissal long before Sala became Mayor and the General Prosecutor's Office instead continued with the indictment against him, the "exchange of favors" thesis is totally imaginative , unfounded and specious to say the least, therefore defamatory. And it will be prosecuted legally.

Barbato's appointment in 2016

In June 2016, at the start of the current administrative mandate, an internal analysis was conducted for the reorganization of the structure. This analysis highlights a need for managerial positions and to fill them some notices are published to collect applications.

Among the vacant roles, there is also that of Commander of the local Police: in the public tender, open to both external people and municipal employees, 32 applications were received, three of which from personnel already employed by the Corps (including Dr. Barbato, former official of the municipal police services as well as director and deputy commander of the local police force).

The examining commission (composed of the then General Director of the Municipality, Arabella Caporello, of the Professor of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and Emeritus Councilor of the Supreme Court of Cassation Giuliano Turone, as an expert member, and of General Nazzareno Giovannelli, manager at the Ministry of Defense - General Command of the Carabinieri - Province of Milan, as an expert member), after six sessions for the evaluation of the curricula and interviews of the candidates, on 18 November 2016, identifies Antonio Barbato as the most suitable person for the position of Commander of the local Police Force and Director of the Urban Security Directorate.
Identification formalized with the Mayor's provision dated 21 November 2016.

It should be noted that the evaluation of the other two profiles already coming from the Corps had a negative outcome: one profile was not admitted to the interview due to lack of requirements; the other was deemed unsuitable for the role based on previous experience.

Therefore, in response to the accusations on the alleged lack of search for internal profiles suitable to cover the role of Commander, it is highlighted that the choice of Doctor Barbato took place in November 2016 (a few months before his resignation), following an internal reconnaissance before and then a public notice, which also saw all the other profiles already employed by the local police evaluated - and deemed unsuitable.

Barbato's assignment to another role in 2017
 
On 29 July 2017, as part of the anti-mafia investigation into the Laudani clan, the press disclosed the contents of some interceptions of Commander Barbato during a meeting with a trade unionist and, above all, with an entrepreneur involved in the investigations.

In sentence no. 14679/18 of the 7th^a Criminal Section of the Court of Milan of 29 November 2018, subsequently confirmed also on appeal, we read that "from the beginning the Fazio-Barbato meeting was cloaked in a thousand precautions, inexplicable in the perspective indicated by the interested parties". Furthermore, we read that Barbato appears willing to "provide a preview directly to Fazio himself with the information necessary to participate in a tender called by the municipal administration". And regarding the possibility of having the traffic policeman Cobelli followed, "Barbato, instead of reacting indignantly to Palmieri's proposal, accepts to receive this favor". Finally, "Palmieri [...] was ready to support the achievement of the Commander's personal interests in order to then exploit this situation as a 'winning card' in favor of Fazio".

Regarding the seriousness of his behavior, Barbato himself heard from the prosecutors on 1 July 2017, at the request of the Public Prosecutor - "listen, but does it seem normal to you that you, who are the commander of the municipal police, accept the proposal to have one of your employees followed essentially by Fazio's private police who was still interested in participating in security tenders announced by the Municipality of Milan?" – responds literally: "I am perfectly aware that, given my role, it would not have been convenient or ethically correct for me to have used this Fazio to follow up an employee with whom there was a conflict, in fact, even if I accepted Palmieri's proposal, I did not nothing ever happened."

The seriousness of these statements, made known by some press articles, induces the municipal administration to delve into the facts - also at the request of all the political forces which across the board are calling for the removal of the Commander - by acquiring the documents of investigation. Even if the contract and the shadowing had not taken place and we learned that Doctor Barbato's position in the investigation was exclusively that of a person informed of the facts, the investigative activities conducted by the DDA of Milan returned a picture of the relationships, behaviors and attitudes of the 'then Commander of the Municipal Police Force such as to make the continuation of the task appear inappropriate.

On 3 August 2017, the Committee for legality, transparency and administrative efficiency of the Municipality of Milan also observed how the behavior of Doctor Barbato spoke "against the conduct that a commander must have" and appeared misaligned with "transparency (and consequently to the behavioral ethics) that must distinguish all public employees and, especially, those who hold top roles". The Committee further notes that "to hold such a delicate and vital role for the orderly conduct of public life, it is essential, upstream of the relationship of interpersonal trust, the broadest (if not even unanimous) recognition of a constant impeccable conduct which, on a daily basis, reaffirms the public authority of the office and role".

On 4 August 2017, Barbato himself, following the admissions made to the prosecutors, wrote to the Mayor of Milan representing "the objective difficulty in continuing in the current managerial role", to be irremediably compromised "the peaceful exercise of the functions and responsibilities ascribed me as Commander of the Municipal Police Force", and asking for assignment to another position. The municipal administration, valorizing the fact that there were no criminal charges, despite Dr. Barbato's admission of having behaved at least inappropriately, does not initiate disciplinary proceedings against him.

Relocation to AMAT

On 10 August 2017 Barbato therefore represented to the General Director of the Municipality of Milan "his availability and interest in possible mobility also towards bodies or companies of the Milanese public system active in the mobility and transport sector", deemed similar to the skills and experiences gained over long years of service, and declares his "willingness to immediately accept any new position with simultaneous definitive and irrevocable renunciation of the position of Commander of the Municipal Police Force and Director of the Urban Security Directorate".

After the necessary checks on the existence of a position similar to Barbato's skills, whose contract did not entail an increase in expenditure for the municipal administration and with a duration equal to that already signed previously, Barbato was relocated to AMAT Srl, a subsidiary of Municipality operational in the planning and regulation of mobility, parking and transport, which in turn finds the correspondence of Barbato's profile with the company needs of supporting the development of the "LEZ" project (subsequently called "Area B").

The reassignment to the new position - which saw him maintain his role and salary as a manager - was never contested by Barbato before the judicial authorities. Moreover, the transfer took place following Barbato's demonstration of availability and interest and thanks to the institution of environmental incompatibility which does not have a disciplinary or sanctioning connotation, but is based on a discretionary evaluation of facts which may lead to the conclusion that the of the employee in a specific location or function, even potentially harmful to the prestige, decorum or functionality of the office.

The appointment of Commander Ciacci

As shown, in the first days of August, the Municipality found itself in the position of having to replace the local Police Commander. At that time the Corps, made up of around 3.000 agents and officers, could only count on a single leader. The public selection procedure for the position of Corps Commander carried out only 9 months earlier, in which managers and officials in possession of the minimum requirements set by the announcement had participated, had led to the exclusion of the presence of other profiles compatible with the functions of Commander.
These circumstances have led the Administration to choose to fill the position through the institution of command (i.e. to borrow from another Administration an already trained and suitable manager without any other formality than the consent of the administrations and the employee), in full compliance with the current regulations and with a guarantee of speed.

Having identified the figure of the first director of the State Police Marco Ciacci, already known and appreciated by the municipal administration for the many fruitful collaborations and joint initiatives carried out for many years in the security sector in the city of Milan, the Municipality makes a request of command to the Police Headquarters of Milan. The request was forwarded on 11 August, i.e. approximately ten days after the onset of the emergency and therefore not "the day after".

Having acquired the necessary authorizations from the Ministry of the Interior, on 4 September 2017 by union decree Dr. Ciacci the role of Commander and Director of the Urban Safety Directorate of the Municipality of Milan for a period of three years extended.

Marco Ciacci, former first Director of the State Police, was chosen on the basis of a highly specialized profile which makes him fully capable and suitable to take on the role. Graduated in Law and Police since 1989, he has held numerous positions in Milan, creating among other things a section specialized in crimes against the elderly, made up of personnel from the State Police and the local police of the Municipality of Milan. Director of the "patron" police station of the Milan Police Headquarters and responsible, from 2003 to 2017, of the Judicial Police - State Police Section at the Public Prosecutor's Office of Milan, he cooperated with all the Police Forces, Customs Agency and Bank of Italy and, at an international level, with the judicial and police authorities of numerous countries.

For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that with respect to an alleged list of ANCI with the names of subjects suitable for the role, it should be noted that it is simply a list of teachers and officials (not managers) of the local police who had participated in a training course for commander of municipalities with more than 15 thousand inhabitants. A laudable initiative but which certainly does not qualify the list as a legally valid hiring ranking, nor did it make the aforementioned officials automatically compatible and suitable for a highly complex role such as that of Commander of the local police force in a city like Milan, which It has over 1,4 million inhabitants.

Previous questions, investigations and checks

Most of the facts exposed so far have already been clarified on previous occasions and in various institutional settings.

Following a complaint presented by the municipal councilor Basilio Rizzo, the national anti-corruption authority submitted, with a note dated 7 November 2017, a request for information to the person responsible for the prevention of corruption and for transparency of the municipality of Milan regarding the placement in another role of the local Police Commander. In particular, the Authority requested further information on the alleged improper use of a fixed-term contract. Following the clarifications provided, on 16 January 2018, the Authority announced that it had ordered the dismissal of the report.

A report was presented to the Lombardy Court of Auditors concerning hypothetical "Irregularities relating to the collaboration in another role of Dr. AB, former Commander of the local police force and the incompatibility of Dr. MC as the new commander". Clarifications were provided on 24 January 2018 through a detailed report on the appointment of the new Commander Ciacci, on the placement of Dr. Barbato, together with the ANAC archiving note. Since then, no further requests for information have been received, nor has the accounting judiciary served any other documents.
 
To the municipal councilor Fabrizio De Pasquale, who on 4 September 2017 presented an urgent question regarding "Appointment of the Commander of the Milan traffic police", and to the Honorable Igor Iezzi, who presented two parliamentary questions regarding the command affair of Dr. Ciacci, punctual answers were provided, so much so that no objections were received from councilor De Pasquale himself.

The denigratory campaign undertaken by Barbato against the municipal administration 

Following the sentence of the Criminal Court of Milan of 29 November 2018 mentioned above, which stigmatizes his conduct as completely inappropriate for the role of Commander of the local police, Dr. Barbato undertook the well-known defamatory campaign against the municipal administration, which he then intensified following the news spread by the press of an investigation by the Milan prosecutor's office against him for "fraud in the security campaign" which he allegedly committed in his capacity as deputy commander of the local police.

With this campaign Barbato is evidently trying to pre-construct a defensive thesis to be used in the aforementioned criminal proceedings and in other ongoing disputes with AMAT and with the Municipality of Milan, which have undertaken several disciplinary proceedings which are still ongoing, in relation to which it therefore seems appropriate to maintain adequate confidentiality.

According to the thesis of Dr. Barbato, he would not be responsible for such conduct, but the victim of a sort of conspiracy hatched against him by the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Mayor of Milan, from which Dr. would ultimately benefit. Ciacci. This theory, as well as being in contrast with the historical facts that have occurred and reviewed above and lacking any element of proof, appears completely illogical if we consider that Dr. Ciacci was already director of the State Police and head of the Judicial Police Section, so the command as director of the local police certainly did not represent a career advancement for him.