Davide Gariglio decided to present himself to the press together with all the Port Network Authority’s (PNA) senior management.
On his second day as special commissioner of the administration at Palazzo Rosciano, the lawyer from Turin immediately wanted to send a clear message to those present: “I’m taking on this institutional role with a sense of responsibility and spirit of service,” he declared. “I would like to thank the Minister of Infrastructure & Transport, Matteo Salvini, and Deputy Minister, Edoardo Rixi, for putting forward my candidature to the parliamentary committees,” he added. “Now we’ll get to work on consolidating this Port Network Authority’s strategic role. Team spirit is going to be essential to achieve the goals that the Authority has set itself. It will be my responsibility to ensure that the working environment is increasingly collaborative and positive.”
Yesterday, the Port Authority’s new leading figure had the opportunity to speak to the organization at Palazzo Rosciano, meeting his predecessor, Luciano Guerrieri, in the morning, with whom he had a conversation lasting several hours, and all the senior managers in the afternoon. This morning, he met all the employees at the PNA headquarters, while his first official visit to Piombino is scheduled for tomorrow.
The calendar for the days to come is full of commitments and institutional meetings, but the course that Gariglio intends to follow has already been set, i.e. building on what the previous administration had achieved. “We have lost a very well-liked president with a lot of experience,” he said, referring to Mr. Guerrieri.” I am grateful to him and to Managing Director Matteo Paroli and all the PNA staff for the work that has been done. Many infrastructure projects have started, in particular Darsena Europa. I intend to keep the commitments made by my predecessor and carry on the work so the projects will be completed as soon as possible’.
One of his first acts as commissioner will be to conclude the process of appointing the members of the new Management Committee, which officially expired on 30th April. The former PNA president had already written to the governor of Tuscany Regional Administration, Eugenio Giani, and to the mayors of Livorno and Piombino, Luca Salvetti and Francesco Ferrari, to start the process. It will be up to the new PNA commissioner to complete it.
It is too early to appoint the Port Network Authority’s new managing director, however, “I intend to take my time to make my assessments,” he says, stressing that the new special commissioner of Genoa’s PNA, Matteo Paroli, is currently still the North Tyrrhenian managing director and will continue to be so until the issue of appointing the new port authority presidents is finally resolved..
In any case, “The regulation in force allows the organization to operate even if this figure is absent”. One thing is certain: “The choice of the managing director will not be made in haste but with due consideration. First, however, we will have to wait for the management committee to be set up.”
On the issue of a possible change at the top of the Darsena Europa project commission body, which at the moment is headed by Special Commissioner Luciano Guerrieri, appointed by DPCM of April 16, 2021, Mr. Gariglio said that it is not up to him to make this choice. “I accept the decisions the government intends to make on this. We will work with whoever is assigned this role. Besides, the decree for appointing the commissioner stipulates that the commissioner can use the PNA to carry out his tasks. The most important thing is that the infrastructure is completed as fast as possible.”
In the morning meeting with PNA employees, Mr. Gariglio had highlighted the need to promote loyal inhouse cooperation: “Paris Saint German won the Champions League the very year it lost its star player, Kylian Mbappé,“ he said, adding that “we do not need Monads but people who know how to collaborate.” This is also why Gariglio announced his intention to make greater use of the senior managers’ conference, “to ensure that the choices made by the authority are shared by everyone and that there are no watertight compartments.”
During the press conference, the PNA’s new leading figure stressed that he intends to perform his role in compliance with the principles of lawful conduct and absolute impartiality: “I am taking on an institutional role, I will be absolutely impartial,” he said, pointing out that “it is a positive sign that there are many operators interested in our port; we will be totally impartial and unbiased in our professional conduct.”
Finally, Mr. Gariglio pointed out that “the Port Network Authority I’m now about to manage is a benchmark in the national port system. There is a lot at stake and many results have been achieved thanks to the high level of expertise the PNA has to offer. My hope is to succeed in ensuring that this Authority can fully express its potential.”
Translation by Giles Foster