IN BREVE
- New chapter in Winemag’s exclusive investigation into the management of public funds for the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles hosted in Calabria in 2022.
- The jury transport service, costing €19,500, was awarded to the transport company SAP SRL Servizi Automobilistici Pizzo.
- ARSAC withheld part of the amount due to tax debts of the supplier company, paying €12,255.17 to the Revenue Agency.
- The (private) transport company’s debt to the Italian State was reduced thanks to (public) funds allocated to the CMB.
- The Concours Mondial de Bruxelles will return to Calabria in 2026, with a new “Rosé Session,” this time in Cirò.
A resolution by ARSAC, the Regional Agency for the Development of Calabrian Agriculture, allows us to reconstruct another aspect of the management of public funds spent in Italy for the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, hosted in Calabria in 2022 with the Rosé Session. The measure concerns the settlement of a transport service for the competition’s jury, provided during the event held in Rende, in the province of Cosenza, from May 19 to 21, 2022 but paid in 2023.
JURY TRANSPORT SERVICE CONCOURS MONDIAL DE BRUXELLES
The service was awarded in 2022 to SAP SRL Servizi Automobilistici Pizzo through direct negotiation on the MePA portal. The invoice, issued in June of the same year, amounted to €19,500 total, VAT included. This is an expense related to the competition’s logistics, necessary to ensure transportation of the tasting panels throughout the area.
CMB CALABRIA PUBLIC FUNDS: REVENUE AGENCY INTERVENTION
In 2023, at the time of invoice settlement, ARSAC activated the verification required for public payments exceeding €5,000. During this phase, a debt position of the supplier company toward the Revenue Agency – Collection emerged. In accordance with current regulations, part of the amounts due was therefore not paid to the company, but garnished and paid directly to the State.
THE CONTRACT REDUCES THE COMPANY’S DEBT
The resolution ordered the payment of €12,255.17 to the Revenue Agency – Collection, the payment of the remaining €5,472.10 to SAP SRL, and the payment of VAT for €1,772.73. The total invoice amount remained unchanged. However, the final destination of the funds is distributed among multiple parties.
In effect, a portion of the regional public funds allocated for organizing the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, rather than completing its economic path to the service provider, was intercepted by the Revenue Agency and allocated to the recovery of a pre-existing tax debt. This produced the concrete effect of reducing the debt exposure of the Calabrian transport company, without generating additional costs for the public administration.
AND THE CONCOURS MONDIAL DE BRUXELLES RETURNS TO CALABRIA
The ARSAC document does not introduce new expenses, but precisely documents one of the administrative outcomes related to the “chain” of public payments disbursed for the competition by the Belgian company Vinopres. As already documented by Winemag, the Italian editions of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles have involved the use of over one million euros in public resources. More than €300,000 is attributable to the 2022 Calabrian edition alone.
In recent years, as revealed by Winemag’s investigation, the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles has received funding for its organizational aspects in regions such as Sicily, Campania, and Sardinia. It is therefore not surprising that the CMB will soon return to Calabria, with a new Rosé Session scheduled this time in Cirò, in the province of Crotone, from March 27 to 29, 2026.
