The shortage of staff faced by the offices of the PCF (Border Crossing Checkpoints) and USMAF (Health Offices) sea, air and border), both of which are dependent on the Ministry of Maritime and Air Security. of Health, which creates a traffic bottleneck of goods in Northern Italy, is dramatic. He denounced it ALSEA, the Lombardy Association of Freight Forwarders and Road Hauliers, recalling that these offices 'play a strategic role in the for the country in controls, in particular in imports, since are responsible for the control of products of health relevance such as medical devices, cosmetics and drugs not authorised in Italy, imported from countries outside the European Union (the USMAFs) and on animals, products of animal origin and feed of animals, as well as consignments of food and feed of plant origin and Food Contact Materials and Objects (FCMs), e.g. cutlery and plates."

Associating itself with the alarm recently launched by the association of the Genoese freight forwarders Spediporto, which highlighted the strong inefficiencies related to goods in transit in the port of the Ligurian capital ( of 29 December 2023), the Secretary General of Alsea, Andrea Cappa, stressed that "what is happening in Liguria is penalising Italian importers and, ultimately, consumers. The delays at the ports of Genoa and Vado slow down processes and can have an impact on products and on their costs. For more than three years, we have had a open table, through Confetra and Fedespedi, with the Ministry of Health that is actually producing a major effort to find doctors, veterinarians, and technicians. The truth, though, is that, despite the competitions and the rankings, few of those who won the competition then accept the Ministry's job offer. Evidently these places are not attractive or because they are paid in a high way. or for other reasons that we do not know."

"The Milanese and Lombard companies - continued the Secretary-General of Alsea - suffer from great difficulties since it cannot be forgotten that more than 50% of the import-export of goods from Lombardy passes through the ports Ligurian. Moreover, at this time, thanks to the self-sacrifice of the USMAF and PCF Lombardo staff, we have no structural delays for goods transiting through Malpensa or arriving by truck but we are aware that even in Lombardy there is a chronic lack of staff that at the first cold or the next retirements will generate new delays in the issuance of goods, as has been the case in recent years."

"It's frustrating," Cappa noted, "to think that, with a few dozen people and therefore at an extremely high cost reduced for the state, the problem could be remedied. Or yes could structurally adopt the model created during the crisis generated by Covid. At that time, the controls, which for the The vast majority of them are still only documentary, not they were carried out only by personnel stationed at the port or airport but it was carried out by the free staff who could be located even hundreds of miles away. Here therefore, that if this model were adopted, it would be possible to overcome critical issues, entrusting document checks also to distant staff, which may abound in other regions, leaving the physical control of the goods to the officials on the ground'.

"We understand," Cappa concluded, "that this is a way to new way of working, which presupposes trade union agreements and but it can be done, with the commitment and everyone's dedication."