Handover ceremony between General (Air Force) Mauro Lunardi and General (Air Defence) Giandomenico Taricco on Friday 27 April in the Hall of Heroes at Palazzo Aeronautica in Rome, in the presence of the Deputy Chief of the Air Force Staff, Air Marshal Settimo Caputo, a handover ceremony took place for the post of Head of the 6th Department “Economic and Financial Affairs” of the Air Force General Staff, between the outgoing Air Brigadier General Mauro Lunardi and the incoming Air Major General Giandomenico Taricco. In his farewell address, General Lunardi first expressed his thanks to the distinguished guests and the authorities present, extending a warm greeting to his colleagues in the Armed Forces, the Joint Forces sector and the international organisations with whom he had actively collaborated over the past 20 months or so. He also expressed particular appreciation and deep esteem for all the Department’s staff for their daily contributions, without which it would not have been possible to achieve the outstanding results attained to date. At the conclusion of his speech, he offered his best wishes to General Taricco for his new and prestigious post. During his address, General Taricco expressed sincere gratitude to the Armed Forces for the trust placed in him in appointing him to the additional post of Head of the 6th Department, emphasising the importance of the financial sector in achieving the strategic objectives set out in the Vision and Mission of the Armed Forces High Command. To this end, he urged the Department’s staff to continue to work, as they have done so far, to the highest standards of competence and professionalism. The Deputy Chief of Staff, General Caputo, thanked General Lunardi for the excellent, meticulous and dedicated work he had carried out in managing the Department, acknowledging his merit in driving the adoption of new methodologies for addressing sensitive technical and financial issues in the field of management control for performance measurement. He then expressed words of deep esteem and gratitude towards the Department’s civilian and military staff for the brilliant and much-appreciated contribution they have consistently made in carrying out their institutional duties. Finally, he expressed his full confidence in General Taricco, who, whilst continuing to serve as Head of the 4th Department, will now be tasked with strengthening not only operational processes but also the Air Force’s financial capacity.
