Podeschi (RF) turns the spotlight on the 300 thousand euros allocated for unexpected expenses: “Unforeseen money is spent on impromptu initiatives that have little or nothing urgent”
From San Marino information – The reserve fund for unforeseen expenses, or rather the use that the government is making of it, ends up in the crosshairs of Marco Podeschicoordinator of Future Republicwho through two interventions published on social media contests the Executive’s use of resources and, in particular, the use of the fund to finance expenses that could have been foreseen and included in the respective budget chapters.
Podeschi starts from the San Marino accounting regulations and the resolutions of the State Congress, which he considers “one of the most recommended readings to understand which political rules apply within the government of our country”.
According to the RF coordinator, since July the use of the “Reserve fund for unexpected expenses” has started to appear more frequently. A dynamic that Podeschi ironically compares to a family’s emergencies: “Unforeseen expenses in a family can be a broken washing machine. A dishwasher that leaks water that needs to be fixed, a car that has a clutch that needs to be replaced.”
For the State, however, the concept of unpredictability is governed by law. Podeschi then recalls article 24 of Law 30/1998, according to which the fund serves “to provide for any shortcomings in budget allocations for expenditure items other than those covered with the previous fund”.
Hence the political question: what, in fact, are the unpredictable expenses incurred by the Government during the summer.
Podeschi recognizes that the unforeseen expenses may include that relating to the visit of Pope Leo But immediately afterwards he asks: “But what logic of unpredictability do the resolutions of the State Congress that follow belong to?”.
In particular, some consultancies and assignments financed through the reserve fund end up in the spotlight: the “From Tourist to Farmer” project, the renewal of the consultancy assignment to Paolo Rondelli, the assignment to the lawyer Kristina Pardalos, the consultancy to Antonio Russo and Piero Scutari and that entrusted to the GMS Associate Firm for the preparation of a plan on public lighting.
“Could the need to continue to make use of the collaborative and consultancy activity of Doctors Antonio Russo and Piero Scutari – asks Podeschi – been foreseen? Put it in the 2026 budget? Postpone it until the State has the money?”.
A similar objection is addressed to the renewal of Paolo Rondelli’s appointment: “The need to continue to make use of the collaboration and consultancy activity of Dr. Paolo Rondelli (…) is discovered on August 25th in the middle of the fifth heat wave with diesel prices skyrocketing?”.
And again, on the plan for public lighting: “Is the objective of planning guidelines for external lighting (…) discovered only on 30 July, in the middle of summer, when the purse under consultancy is empty?”.
For Podeschi, the problem is therefore that of planning public spending. “Money is spent that was not foreseen in the chapters on impromptu initiatives that have little or nothing urgent,” he claims, going so far as to strongly criticize the management of priorities by the Executive: “You save on food for patients in hospital or on air conditioning in schools, but you squander on unlikely consultants to keep everyone happy in a government that is creaking.”
The criticism continues in a second speech, in which Podeschi also puts the overall amount of the reserve fund for unforeseen expenses under observation. “How much is the reserve fund for unexpected expenses in the state budget?”, he asks, indicating the expected allocation for 2026 as 300 thousand euros.
“Will the 300,000 euros be spent? Certainly yes, as I have already had the opportunity to say and the bonanza continues”, he states.
In support of his dispute he then cites resolution number 40 of 1 September 2026, with which another 8 thousand euros are transferred from the reserve fund to the chapter relating to missions and travel of public administration personnel.
The motivation, reported by Podeschi, is linked to the need for the Secretariat of State for Industry to ensure the presence of its officials “in different contexts and meetings outside the territory”. However, the RF coordinator highlights that in the budget change filed in July the chapter on missions and travel, equal to 150 thousand euros, was not increased. Hence a series of questions: “So what happened in the middle of summer? What is the purpose of an extra 8,000 euros on September 1st? What does the Economic Development Department have to do with the broad and complex scope of the institutional delegations of the Secretariat of State?”.
Podeschi also asks: “What coat are the officials present in meetings outside the territory wearing? Government? Department?”, also arriving at a provocation about the upcoming motorcycle event: “Does the emergency coincide with the MotoGP in mid-September?”.
In short, “the certainty, for now, is another 8,000 euros spent that we don’t have”.
And the coordinator of Repubblica Futura closes by leaving the topic of the next measures open: “We are waiting to see what the next unforeseen events will be…”.
