Catania, corruption in healthcare contracts: 6 restrictive measures carried out. In handcuffs, Prof. Morgia NAMES PHOTOS DETAILS

Upon delegation from the Public Prosecutor's Office of Catania, the Financiers of the Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza of Catania have implemented an order of precautionary measures issued by the GIP of the Etna Court against 6 people (of which 2 under house arrest And 4 recipients of suspension of the public service of hospital doctor e of the activity of commercial agents for 12 months) investigated for disturbed freedom of enchantments, corruption for acts contrary to official duties, instigation to corruption, extortion and money laundering.

Online Gazzettino – 25 February 2019

With a further and simultaneous provision, the GIP established:

– a hearing on 4 March next to discuss the application of the precautionary measure of prohibition to contract with the PA against one of the commercial companies involved as a beneficiary of the corruption perpetrated by one of its representatives;

– the interrogation on March 2nd against further 3 subjects (medical managers), on the outcome of which the GIP reserved the right to apply the  disqualification measure of the suspension of the exercise of public service at the expense of the same.

The investigation, conducted by the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Catania (Public Finance Protection Group) and coordinated by this District Attorney's Office, conventionally known as “Calepino” (file/manuscript on which the personal expenses of the corrupt doctor financed by the private companies involved were noted), revealed the existence of a    run-in corruptive circuit in carrying out a tender of primary importance in the public health sector, fed by medical executives and sales representatives/agents of well-known pharmaceutical companies.

The main object of the investigation was the tender n.7099821 of 17 July 2018 announced by the Vittorio Emanuele University Hospital of Catania having as its object "the three-year supply, with an option for six-monthly renewal, of medical devices for urology needed by healthcare, hospital and university organizations in the Basin of Eastern Sicily, divided into 209 lots for a total of €55,430,178.00”.

The aforementioned Etna hospital had been identified as the leader for the completion of a procedure to ensure the purchase of devices to be assigned to the urological operating units present in various hospitals in Messina, Syracuse, Ragusa, Enna and Catania.

The timely investigation of complaints formulated by commercial representatives of companies that considered themselves unjustly excluded from the public procedure, together with the execution of telephone and environmental interceptions, bank checks and analysis of public documents acquired from databases, have brought to light a mechanism alarming corruption due to the systematic nature and diffusion of the unlawful conduct traced; the latter actions, animated by the exclusive pursuit of personal utility in total disregard of the essential and relevant public interests at stake.

Main architects of the distorted public tender, as well as recipients of the measure of the House arrest, I am:

- The Prof. Giuseppe Morgia (cl.1959), director of the Complex Operative Unit of Urology of the University Hospital "Policlinico-Vittorio Emanuele" of Catania;

–  Massimiliano Tirri (born 1968), agent and commercial manager of "C.BUA SRL", engaged in the wholesale business of medical and orthopedic products, with registered office in Bagheria (PA), exclusive reseller in Sicily, among others, of the products of the “Karl Storz Endoscopy Italia SRL” and “Erbe Italia SRL”.

Furthermore, the following subjects are recipients of the suspension of the exercise of public service of hospital doctor and of the activity of commercial agents for 12 months:

–  Tommaso Massimo Castelli (born 1979), medical director of theteam by Prof. Morgia;

–  Antonino Di Marco (born 1962), representative of health products operating in the province of Catania also on order of "C.BUA SRL";

–  Maurizio Francesco La Gattola (born 1961), agent of health and medical products, salesman of products of the “Boston Scientific SPA” (based in Milan and engaged in the wholesale trade of medical items);

–  Domenico Tramontana (born 1963), agent of pharmaceutical and herbal products, district manager from the “Omega Pharma SRL”, with registered office in Cantù (CO), engaged in the wholesale trade of medical items.

The meticulous and rapid investigations conducted by the Guardia di Finanza of Catania, launched in September last year, have shown that Prof. Morgia, despite not having any formal assignment, actually managed the tender in question, determining the decisions of the technical commission called to formulate its opinion on specifications already packaged in advance "tailor-made" so that the assignment of the most significant lots would take place in favor of the commercial companies willing to satisfy the utility requests made by Morgia himself.

The contract, therefore, already in the delicate initial phase of the preparation of the tender specifications and the technical specifications was vitiated by Prof. Morgia, who received, on the one hand, the needs of the other Healthcare, Hospital and University Companies of the Sicily Basin Oriental and, on the other hand, the technical characteristics of the products supplied by private companies to benefit, personally took care of the drafting of the tender documents and the composition of the lots, influencing decisively in the choice of medical devices to be purchased, thus preventing the contract could, in fact, be carried out freely and nullifying, already upstream, any possible competition between the aspiring companies.

Morgia's illicit work took the form of creating real "entry filters" for the lots of interest, consisting of inserting the supply of materials not strictly connected to the main machinery and marketed next to a main product to be purchased in Sicily by the Palermo-based company “C. BUA SRL”. In several situations, Morgia boasted to his interlocutors (both medical colleagues, also participants in the tender commission and agents of the companies that market the products to be tendered) that he could supervise the tender without having required his appointment among those who would have been called to evaluate the technical conformity of the devices to be contracted.

The director of the Urology Unit of the "Vittorio Emanuele" Polyclinic in Catania could also avail himself of the presence in the committee of a medical director of his own team, Tommaso Massimo Castelli (cl. 1979), reached by disqualification measure of suspension.

From a preliminary documentary examination, the specialists of the Public Expenditure Protection Section of the PEF Nucleus of Catania ascertained that in 9 tender lots (for a total value of approximately 8 million euros) "C.BUA SRL" had submitted an offer without competitors; the same company, in a further 14 lots (for a total amount of less than 3 million euro), formulated an offer in competition with other companies.

In the phase following the call for tenders, during the preparation of the technical specifications, Morgia boldly "haggled" his function, enslaving his scientific discretion in favor of private companies willing to provide the doctor with contributions and funding for any type of event, professional or otherwise .

In detail, Prof. Morgia did not hesitate to reveal to the aforementioned Tirri and ad Antonino Di Marco (born 1962), representative of sanitary products operating in the province of Catania also on order from "C.BUA SRL", news about the grievances made by competing companies in order to agree with the aforementioned the "adjustments" of the technical specifications and the composition of the tender lots also useful for "sterilizing" any administrative appeals of the losing companies.

The aforementioned Tirri and Di Marco resorted to even glaring stratagems in order not to lose the lots of interest: in view of the observation that medical instruments supplied by "C.BUA SRL" had also been included in the tender (i.e. products that could be used several times) despite the tender only providing for disposable devices, they agreed to alter the product classification code so that it would fictitiously refer only to the goods that could enter the tender. The two agents of "C.BUA SRL" did not hesitate to collude with Prof. Morgia with whom they agreed to pay the registration fee for a medical conference to be held in Barcelona (Spain) as well as the related flights and hotel stay luxury also in favor of a collaborator of Morgia.

Another company benefiting from Morgia's criminal work is the "Boston Scientific SPA" which participated in the Bacino tender with its own offer in 25 lots, through the intermediation of  Maurizio Francesco La Gattola (born 1961), healthcare and medical supplies agent, Boston product salesman.

In defiance of any ethical as well as regulatory code, Morgia and La Gattola held frequent meetings at the hospital where, given Morgia's expressed willingness to "pack" the lots, La Gattola undertook to financially support the participation of the medical director at the most important world urology conference to be held in Boston (USA) in the current year. In addition, the two planned, according to tender procedures to be established later, the acquisition by the Etna Polyclinic Vittorio Emanuele, where Morgia lent his service, of some instruments of the "Boston Scientific" against which La Gattola assured the Professor the free provision of a portable videocystoscope (endoscopy hose).

Another serious corruption episode reconstructed by the specialists of the Economic and Financial Police Unit is the one that sees as a counterpart of Morgia, Domenico Tramontana (born 1963), district manager from the “Omega Pharma SRL”, with registered office in Cantù (CO). The company is registered in the register of suspects (for administrative liability of entities pursuant to Legislative Decree no. 231/2001) together with the “C. Bua SRL” as beneficiaries of the corrupt agreements bound by their employees. Specifically, against Morgia's increase in the prescription to his patients of 4 supplements produced by "Omega Pharma SRL", Tramontana made wire transfers for 10,000 euros, promising a further 12,000 euros, in favor of a travel agency of Catania which placed the funds in question at Morgia's disposal for travel by the doctor and his family.

The brokerage of the travel agency – whose directors are being investigated for recycling – was essential to give a semblance of legitimacy to the payment of sums formally intended for travel for professional training courses. In reality, through an accounting parallel to the official one, the administrators of the travel agency kept a record of the credits received in favor of Morgia, who could then use them according to his own private needs. To close the circle of corruption there was the punctual issue of invoices by the travel agency in favor of "Omega Pharma SRL" which could thus also bring the "price" of corruption into the budget, among the costs.

During the investigations, the Financiers of the Nucleus were able to ascertain further episodes of attempted bribery not connected to the monitored Basin tender, but emblematic of the personality of Prof. Morgia; the latter, in fact, faced with the proposal made by scientific informants (in the process of being identified) to facilitate the diffusion of pharmaceutical products, asked them for their willingness to disburse benefits according to the tried-and-tested corruption scheme previously illustrated.

A was also detected concussion against a company entrusted with the supply of consumables for the equipment to the Vittorio Emanuele hospital in Catania Da Vinci Robots (this is an instrument that "amplifies" the surgeon's hands in urology, favoring precision interventions). In particular, faced with the refusal of the company managers to finance a charity dinner with the sum of 1,200 euros supported by a non-profit organization, "Europa Uomo Italia", of which Morgia chairs the scientific committee, the latter promptly took steps to block orders for consumables of the aforementioned "Robot" so as to determine, to the detriment of the coerced commercial company, an immediate reduction in revenues.

The investigative activity described, therefore, shed light on one of the most consistent tenders launched in the health sector at a national level, interrupting a well-tried course of corruption which excluded from public competition companies capable of offering products with the same technical characteristics at even lower, with consequent economic damage for the regional health expenditure, given that the purchase of the contracted materials would have been financed with the budget funds of the health, hospital and university companies that make up the basin of eastern Sicily.