Court of Auditors ruling on piazza Italia in Volpiano
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Ruling number 72/2026 by the Jurisdictional Section for Piedmont of the Court of Auditors (Corte dei conti), the Italian judicial body that oversees public finance and rules on damage to public administration, concerns the redevelopment works on piazza Italia in Volpiano, turned into a market area. The designer and construction supervisor was ordered to pay 22,153.35 euros to the City of Volpiano for the defects and flaws in the completed works. The municipal employee who held the role of RUP (Responsabile unico del procedimento), the official responsible for overseeing a public works project on behalf of the contracting authority, for whom the public prosecutor's office at the Court of Auditors (Procura contabile) had sought compensation of 98,206.98 euros, was instead acquitted [1].
The works and the defects
The works on piazza Italia were handed over to the contractor on 14 June 2016 and completed on 11 June 2017. Already in spring 2018 some inspections found defects in the execution of the works. In 2019 the City of Volpiano declared the works ineligible for final acceptance (collaudo), the official technical sign-off verifying that completed public works comply with the project, after a technical survey had revealed construction flaws and shortcomings compared to the project [1].
The matter also went to civil court, with a preventive technical assessment and a lawsuit against the designer and the contractor, which ended in a settlement on 13 September 2024. The court-appointed technical consultancy (CTU) ordered by the Court of Auditors found "clear and evident signs of settlement in the foundation layer of the paving, which caused the rupture of the surface water drainage channels and generated conspicuous and widespread depressions" [1].
The causes of the settlement
The technical consultant identified among the causes of the settlement "insufficient compaction and insufficient thickness of the layer", while for the drainage channels the issues were also attributed to "an incorrect choice of foundation material". The consultancy quantified the costs needed to restore the works at 101,375.93 euros [1].
The Court's decision
The Court of Auditors found the designer responsible "for having modified the project through a less performant change to the foundation stratigraphy compared to the original one" and "for not having prescribed [...] the indispensable plate load tests", defining his conduct as "grossly negligent". The total damage was quantified at 73,844.53 euros, but the sentence was limited, under Law 1/2026, to 22,153.35 euros, equal to 30% of the amount. The Court suspended judgment on the remaining 51,691.18 euros pending a ruling on the constitutional legitimacy of the law [1].
Related articles: Volpiano
Sources
- Piazza Italia, la Corte dei conti assolve il Rup ma condanna il progettista — Prima il Canavese, 24 October 2026