The Legality Protocols put in place by FS Group – Italferr’s role

On Thursday, February 23, a conference on "Legality Protocols in the FS Group and Databases: an in-depth look at RFI works and the role of Italferr" was held at Italferr’s headquarters in Rome.

It was an important moment of exchange among industry experts from the FS Group and in the presence of the Vice Chairman of the Coordinating Committee for the Supervisory Authority for Priority Infrastructure and Installations Emanuele Maugeri.

Italferr's CEO Andrea Nardinocchi opened the proceedings, highlighting the company's great impetus to digitisation, pointing out in particular the work of the Structures dedicated to preparatory verifications for subcontracting authorisations. The FS Group now has a modern and efficient system that every night ensures the transfer of data uploaded by Italferr relating to contractors and subcontractors into the FS's SIAS Information System. The system is accessed by the contacts of the Prefectures, Interforce Groups, Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate, Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza for the verifications of competence provided for by the Tender Protocols. In 2022, Italferr's Subcontracting sector entered more than 4,500 requests for authorisation, and more than 6,000 are expected in 2023. This is a huge amount of data made available in real time.

FS's Chief Security & Risk Officer, Roberto Massi, precisely because of the size and relevance of the data contained in the SIAS database, specified that access has also been extended to other law enforcement officers through the signing of cooperation agreements with the Carabinieri and with the Guardia di Finanza, as part of a series of interventions aimed at strengthening legality controls at construction sites of projects managed by the FS Group.

The morning continued with a presentation by the Vice Chairman of the Coordinating Committee for the Supervisory Authority for Priority Infrastructure and Installations, Emanuele Maugeri, who illustrated the Legality Protocols provided for in CIPE Resolutions and the role of Contracting Authorities in the anti-mafia prevention model for priority infrastructure and installations.

Following this, RFI's Investments Director Lucio Menta and Italferr's Director of Infrastructure Captive Project Management Luigi Evangelista outlined RFI's investments for priority works included in the 'Monitoraggio Grandi Opere' (MGO - Major Projects Monitoring). There are 39 interventions currently included in the MGO, soon to be joined by another 30 interventions for which requests for inclusion have been made; 41 Prefectures are involved, and in 2022 alone there was a 150 percent increase in the number of legality protocols signed compared to the previous year.

FS's Civil Protection and Anti-Mafia Relations Manager Maria Cristina Fiorentino focused on the system for preventing attempts at infiltration by organised crime, which sees an important operational tool in Legality Protocols and in Operational Protocols for monitoring financial flows, managed through dedicated information systems.

In closing, Michele Persichini, Head of Major Projects Monitoring and Legality Protocols of RFI's Investment Deparment, outlined the objectives of the Legality and Operational Protocols, and Marco Testa from FS's Security & Risk Department presented the SIAS database - Awarding and Subawarding Information Systems.