Antonello MONTANTE, Sicilian businessman, President of the Montante Group and associated companies, expert in the constitution and management of joint ventures; he is Director for relations with the Institutions responsible for the control of the territory for Confindustria. He is President of the Industrial Federation of Sicily and also a component of the Regional Board of Directors of the Palermo Branch of the Banca d’Italia. From 1996 to 200l, he was President of the Young Entrepreneurs of Confindustria at Caltanissetta and in 1997 was President of the Consortium Area of Industrial Development of Nisseno. In 2008, he was conferred the honour of “Cavaliere del Lavoro” (knighted for his services to industry) by the President of the Republic.

Antonello Montante, successful entrepreneur, engaged with Confindustria and promoter of the “transparency effect” of the companies of Italian brand which has created the virtuous circuit of the legality rating to contribute to the growth of businesses – with credit necessity – which operate with a style of legality and ethicality, explains to Gnosis the key to understanding a measure designed to meet the favour of the entrepreneurs and how much they care about the continued development of the Italian System.

The clean liquidity which is synonymous with legality is created and realized with this instrument
The legality rating was established with the main purpose of saving many honest businesses in which, in a moment of crisis, the lack of liquidity results in a severe blow even for companies that have a market.
The other purpose, or simply, the double aim of the rating, is that of saving the companies that want to get out of those markets controlled by obscure mechanisms and wish, instead, to join the free markets where competition is measured by using modern strategies and innovation. The possibility of improving the rating allows for a better bankability and, therefore, enables the companies to continue working and to maintain a level of management of the contracts and control of the markets, without coming into contact with illegal networks.

Absolutely. The legality rating for the honest businesses and the competitiveness are two inter-dependent factors. I would say that it is a cause and effect relationship. The limits within which it is possible to maintain a good level of competitiveness are the innovative capacity, a good position in the markets and, above all, the control and management of the cash flows, which ensure the ultimate success. The absence of liquidity does not allow the business to defend itself. It causes disruptions and distortion in the markets which are coveted by the criminal networks, which certainly do not have this kind of problem.

The advantage of the antimafia rating is, first and foremost, the recognition of the economic convenience of the legality, combined with the aspect of a greater and more concrete economic and entrepreneurial security. In a context where the economic crisis has, as an inevitable consequence, a growing phenomenon of a credit crunch, it is necessary to foster the diffusion of legality and ethical behaviour by the help of practical instruments that facilitate access to credit, in order to give better conditions to businesses which pursue high standards of legality and which, after all, remain exposed to speculations of organized crime in the markets. Thanks to the legislation on the legality rating, the companies will have less bank interest costs through an “improvement report” and, consequently, many businesses will overcome the risk of closure, notwithstanding the presence of contracts.

Yes, because the companies that are able to withstand and survive on the market at national level, may be able to continue the growth challenge also abroad, increasing the export quota of the Country, which affects the domestic GDP.

First of all, it is necessary to be able to recognize the economic advantage of the legality. A business that operates in an honest circuit has signed the protocols of serious and rigid legality with the Ministry of the Interior and the local prefectures, and it does it with commitment and responsibility; it has made the choice to denounce criminal malpractice or, at least, is disposed to do so without hesitation: it respects all security criteria in the work place, applies all the warranty regulations and necessary supervision on the construction sites and respects the rules of the national contracts. It is necessary to choose long-term growth and development strategies with the guarantee of the State. Assisted strategies guaranteed by the illegal economic powers must be eliminated. The legality is not only an ethical value, but is also a great economic value. Work must be carried on in an environment of normality. The businesses that implement the standards of normality and respect the regulations enter the honest circuit, defending their know-how, their workers and their markets. They have a modern view of the investments and markets and want to create added value to their products.

An even more serious alternative or further criminal activity which has entered the racket is that of the usury. The “chameleon-like” mafia changes according to the changes of the market. Due to the economic crisis, the credit crunch, the fall in flows of public money, delays of payment by the Public Administration, many businesses are forced to turn to the moneylenders to resolve their credit problems. Please note, however, unlike the pizzo, the crime of usury is even more difficult to demonstrate and the reporting of it is still rarer.
It is a hidden phenomenon because the person who asks to borrow money usually considers the usurer a friend and, often, is ashamed to speak of the transaction. The money lenders in the Mafioso environments lose no occasion to approach entrepreneurs in the grip of this problem. A worrying number transpires from the statistics of the business world: circa 30,000 activities have closed due to the usurer.
Unfortunately, this disaster coexists, although in an obviously contrary way, with the healthy part of the entrepreneurship, since the mafia accumulates capital: the huge amount that enters the network and made easily available to applicants is well able to differentiate and camouflage itself behind subjects that have a ‘clean record’ and which, without difficulty, are available for criminal dynamics and mechanisms that distribute money, identify entrepreneurial innovations, exploit strategic sectors and construct a favourable context, well connected at the communication and sponsorship level, with the purchases of pages of national press bodies, also in order to have a widespread and general consensus.
The birth of the new mafia – that of the finance and capital one – is the result of the distorting effect of globalization, a symbol that underlines how the banks and the State are, often, not able to furnish what the Mafioso systems can ensure, satisfying the stringent requirements related to the crisis, especially in the more sensitive territories in which a permanent state of need exists.
A similar scenario argues in favour of the necessity of reinforcing also the Information and Security agencies committed, together with the Police forces – within the limits of their respective power and responsibilities – to identifying these serious systemic risks.

The Minister of the Interior is already at work to define the official procedures. In the embryonic phase of my proposal, it was important that there was the will to go ahead on the part of the Minister of Chancellors, Minister Severino, as well as authoritative exponents of the Italian Magistracy.
The existence of this honest circuit has preceded – with historical speed – the transformation of an idea into law, thanks to the bipartisan political agreement, the institutional support and the corroboration of the same ABI. The rating has already become an important sign which influences both the recovery of the healthy businesses and the strength of the economic ethics of the State, which can use it also as support for other instruments. Since it is an objective in transparency and civilization, I believe that the metabolization of the procedures of the measure will be quite fast.

The present stifling problem for the small and medium businesses is credit. This problem is gripping the companies both North and South although in the South there is a considerable infrastructural gap. The daily drain of the competitiveness regards all the businesses of the Country. The global effect of the crisis has resulted in an alignment of their conditions in almost all of the territories. To speak of the difference between the North and the South when a way out must be found towards a return growth risks having a myopic view of the industrial policy which we must eliminate by reversing the cultural trend underlying this prospect.
A two-speed Italy cannot exist – it would not be convenient. Instead, one could identify the various territorial characteristics and exploit them in a more effective and competitive way, following a single plan for industrial development: that of the functioning system for Italy as a global Country. In this way, we would reinforce our position within the international markets and would give the vital lymph to the healthy SMEs which, otherwise, risk total failure, also due to these rigid internal divisions in which the mafia continues to enrich itself by steadily delocalizing and recycling capital, thanks to its ability to move, change and reverse trends.
Think of the polyhedral form of investment of the mafia capital: passing from interests in the construction sector, to those connected to the new economies, and on to the sectors of the new forms of Energy and the critical infrastructures.

Monetary oxygen is needed for an effective relaunching, together with the ability to invest and attract investments, utilizing the inexhaustible industrial creativity which distinguishes us.
The accumulation of the money which has finished in the recycled capital network represents the “strength stolen from the healthy economy”, which we must retrieve: it is necessary to speed-up the go-ahead of the concrete reforms in favour of the businesses and workers, to start up a serious and speedy process of simplification of the bureaucratic procedures, align the payments of the Public Administration within the 60 days – just as in all the other European States – privatize the public companies, following a line of strict supervision in the selection of the private entities.
Finally, the support of an effective availability of incentives is necessary – and not simple palliatives – able to finance the research, the innovation and the so-called prototyping, a characteristic distinctive of the National industrial model, without equal and unrepeatable without our know-how.
We must gain time in order to put our ideas and products into circulation as quickly as possible, the market does not wait, as it is “the early bird that catches the worm” in the jungle of the present globalization, in which the low cost Countries have already occupied the front rows, having enormous competitive advantages. Delay, however, punishes the businesses and, often, provokes death.
We must not forget that we are the fifth industrial power in the world and it is not encouraging to stand by and see how the history of our brands and industrial patents which, although they have allowed us to reach this level, are steadily weakening and run the risk of disappearing. We must intervene before it is too late. One way to defend trade marks and patents could be the creation of a national quality list to be protected from extinction. An action of intervention would be useful in favour of excellence, with the use of specific funds in order to guarantee its existence.

To begin with, it would serve to create –from scratch – the legal instrument on the management of these assets that incentivizes the functionality, in real time, in terms of revenue into the coffers of the State.
To do this, it is necessary to “bring the assets to income” and to bring them to income, it is necessary to entrust or sell them to private parties through transparent and speedy procedures, using the monitoring of an external and competent Authority, which could be, for example, the one that takes care of the legality rating.
The fundamental objective must be to recuperate as much liquidity as possible to put back into circulation through the regularization of the confiscated businesses which are, often, destined to failure because they are not administered by real managers oriented to make them part of the honest circles of the real and free markets, since up to the moment of confiscation, the mafias held them, assisted and closed, within the networks of the illegal consortiums.
The quality of the management argues in favour of the inclusion of the confiscated companies in networks of competitive firms which are able to pay the taxes, guarantee the work and defend the workers, not allowing – in any way – the idea to become rooted that only under mafia management can results be produced and generated.
The entrustment of the instrument to prepared managers and with the collaboration of the State, could open a door to a future change.
Confindustria, together with the State, may be ready to intervene for the noble purpose of growth. As Delegate for the Legality, I consider myself available. It would not be such a bad idea to make an initial experiment, a pilot project, in a territory chosen where there are many confiscated assets and done in such a way that the wealth generated returns to the same territory: a kind of recuperation of an advantage from a situation of disadvantage would be created, as well as a great ethical and cultural value, which would accredit the economic convenience of the legality, and discredit the mafia. This move could be an important lever in giving a contribution to the growth and relaunching in terms of ethical economy of the Country.