Almost €20 million paid out in one year in Lazio

It took two months of letter and reminder writing. Two months during which Five Star MoVement (M5S) councillors seeking to obtain the full list of pensions were even told the information was confidential. But in the end, the list appeared and it is full of surprises. 

In December 2013, the Lazio region made 266 pension payments, forty-nine more than three years ago, for a total of €1,635,917, which means €19,631,004 in one year. That’s a third of the entire regional authority budget. Above all, the list now in the hands of the M5S chair of the regional audit committee, Valentina Corrado, demonstrates that nothing has changed in the aftermath of the Batman affair, not even for a regional council that managed to squander €14 million of public money on scandalous personal expenses in a year. 

All-party approval of a small amendment was all it took to cripple the Monti decree regulations that would have denied pensions before age sixty-six or for less than ten years’ service.

Will these bastardian politicians ever learn?