What happens on Fastweb’s electronic wristbands?
Fastweb returns the accusations on electronic bracelets to the sender: all those requested by the Police Forces activated. Facts, numbers and controversies
No delay in delivering electronic bracelets. Fastweb, after accusations of inefficiency by some press, tries to clarify the agreements made between the company and the Ministry of the Interior for the management of the electronic surveillance system for persons subjected to restrictive freedom measures, commonly known as "Electronic bracelet".
Let's go step by step.
THE ACCUSATIONS
Let's start from the beginning. Following the Urgent Interpellation 2-01022 discussed in the Chamber of Deputies last January 15, news has circulated about possible delays and inefficiencies of Fastweb. The Italian company controlled by the Swiss group Swisscom was accused of failing to supply the number of bracelets required by the contract.
CLARIFICATIONS OF FASTWEB
Accusations, however, that Fastweb returns to the sender. The company led by Alberto Calcagno immediately specified that, to date, "the number of bracelets actually activated (and deactivated) depends on what is requested from time to time by the Police Forces as a result of the provisions of the magistrates who are the only authority competent to order measures to restrict personal freedom or alternatives to prison ”, explains a note from Fastweb.
THE COMMITMENTS OF FASTWEB
Let's take a step back. Based on the contract stipulated between Fastweb and the Ministry of the Interior for the three-year period 2018-2021, following the award of a public tender, the telco is required to provide, as established by the tender regulations – a "turnkey" service remote monitoring of subjects subjected to judicial authority measures through the use of electronic surveillance tools ".
Therefore, the contract does not envisage "the monthly delivery of a predefined quantity of electronic bracelets to the public security authorities".
MINIMUM ACTIVATION ELECTRONIC BRACELETS
However, there is a minimum activation limit. The contract provides that “The service provided by the Company must allow, on a monthly basis, the average activation of a number of 1,000 devices with the ability to activate even 20% more”, explains the Fastweb note.
NO SLOPE
Deputy Minister Crimi also specified that Fastweb had no pending during the discussion relating to Urgent Interpellation 2-01022: "as of today, there are no pending requests from the Judicial Authority, as all the applications presented have been managed or planned, ”Crimi said.
"On April 10, the extraordinary Commissioner for the Coronavirus emergency (Domenico Arcuri, ed ), in the exercise of his faculties and following a request from the Department of Penitentiary Administration of the Ministry of Justice, performed an assignment asking Fastweb to gear up to activate 1,600 more electronic bracelets (overall, not on a monthly basis) than those provided for in the first contract to deal with the pandemic in progress and any demand peaks deriving from the need to reduce infections in prisons ", he also Fastweb specified.
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EXTRACT FROM THE CORRIERE DELLA SERA ARTICLE ON ELECTRONIC BRACELETS AND FASTWEB:
Scratch scratch, in the end the soap opera of the contract between the Ministry of the Interior and Fastweb for electronic bracelets is a bit like the story of vaccines: bought in doses or vials? On remote surveillance devices, the theme, now we understand, is the same: supply "of" one thousand per month, or monitoring service "up to" one thousand per month, in exchange for 7.7 million a year from December 2018 in December 2021?
A thousand a month is what was intended, if the words have any meaning, in all the answers given over time by the ministries of the Interior (which made the contract) and of Justice (whose magistrates then use the bracelets) to the various parliamentary interpellations, most recently on 15 January the Deputy Minister of the Interior Vito Crimi to the honorable Roberto Giachetti: "The contract relates to the assignment of a monitoring service with related monthly activation of 1,000 electronic bracelets, up to a surplus equal to 20%, for a maximum of 1,200 monthly ». The reason why after the first 24 months of the contract was "activated 10,155 devices" was intrigued, with "a residual of 4,215 active", instead of 24,000 (one thousand per month for 24 months). To the point of inducing Giachetti to burst into the Chamber even evoking the intervention of the Court of Auditors.
In reality, if one adheres to the non-secret part of the contract, it appears that the service to which Fastweb appears to be required is not to supply 1,000 / 1,200 bracelets per month, but "allow the average activation of 1,000 devices per month, with the to activate even 20% more ». If asked. But the requests for activation by the magistrates in practice were much less than expected: this is why on the first two of the three years of the contract, that is, when up to 24,000 bracelets could have been activated, the Interior Ministry counts a total of 10,155 activations and 5,940 deactivations. And this is why on January 15 Crimi always assured that "there are no pending requests from the judicial authorities, all of them have been managed or scheduled". In short, there is plenty of bracelets, unlike years ago, but the magistrates use them little, mentally preferring pure house arrest (if they rely on the arrested person) or otherwise prison.
But then the state pays 7.7 million a year even if, absurdly, only 1 bracelet is activated? The company says it is bound to confidentiality by the ministry, which, when asked about the point, has not yet responded. But, for what seems to be derived from the contract, the answer is no: in addition to two fixed quotas (75,000 for the work plan and 400,000 for the police stations), Fastweb is paid bimonthly on the number of activations and their monitoring. . So, if on a theoretical three-year ceiling of 36,000 devices that can be activated the maximum to be paid would be 23 million, it is presumable that the 10,155 activated so far have cost about 6.5 million.
A different and additional contract is instead the one under which on 10 April 2020 the extraordinary Commissioner for the Covid emergency, Domenico Arcuri, on behalf of the Dap-Department of the Penitentiary Administration of the Ministry of Justice, entrusted Fastweb with the dry activation ( not per month) and additional (more than the 2018-2021 contract) of 1,600 bracelets to cope with any peaks deriving from the law decrees passed to reduce infections in prisons. Here both the commissioner and the company have not yet communicated the consideration.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/che-cosa-succede-sui-braccialetti-elettronici-di-fastweb/ on Wed, 27 Jan 2021 07:24:32 +0000.