The European Union is asking the member countries that want to access the Recovery Fund for a serious investment plan and, at the same time, for reforms. Among the latter, the country specific recommendations for Italy focus above all on the reform of the Public Administration. Not surprisingly: in order to be effective, no investment can do without a transparent and efficient administrative machine at the various territorial levels of government. The economic recovery will not only be a question of how much money will arrive in our country, but also and above all of "how" that money will be spent and "by whom". In other words, injecting liquidity, for example into Regions and Municipalities, will not be sufficient to guarantee a widespread and fair recovery, if Regions and Municipalities do not equip themselves with what in European terminology is defined as "institutional capacity".
In the political debate, on the other hand, attention seems to focus almost exclusively on which investment projects to choose - whether more for the green economy or for digitization - and on who will have to manage the related European aid. That's fine, but that's not enough. We need to start immediately to place the emphasis on strengthening that "institutional capacity" that Europe requires as an essential condition so that the Recovery Fund does not risk being wasted. It is clear that a reform of the PA that increases that capacity will not be achieved in a few months, but in order to prepare at least one reform path that is credible in the eyes of the EU, the Government must equip itself from now on with a general knowledge framework of the Public Administrations. And this for the simple reason that you cannot improve what you don't know.
No public institution currently has that framework, except limited to partial aspects, but the Italian legislator laid the foundations for it, in 2013, with the so-called "transparency decree". By obliging all the PAs to publish the same information in the same format, with the same frequency and in the same section of their respective websites, this discipline makes it possible to measure the performance and integrity of each Administration, to compare it with those of the same type, to follow its chronological trend.
That "de facto" database that the legislator has made mandatory for the PA universe with the "Transparent Administration" section on institutional websites appears today messy and confused even for insiders, and therefore not very usable. However, the application of the assessment methodology of the so-called "ESG sustainability indices" can transform it into a very rich source for mapping Public Administrations and their state of efficiency, transparency and integrity. Thanks to one of those indices, the comparative results on the Regions and on the provincial capitals are already available: an information asset whose diagnostic value cannot be ignored in our country, now that the European Commission has indirectly recognized it by launching a pilot project for testing in other member countries.
A good result for the Government would already be to carry out the first due diligence of the Public Administrations in Italy. This would allow him to prepare an administrative strengthening plan, which, without the need to enact new regulations, could become one of the most appreciated reforms by the European Union. Sadly known, in fact, for its inefficiencies and waste, Italy has the opportunity to demonstrate that it has launched a serious and profound process of improvement in the quality of expenditure starting from the improvement of the public administrative apparatus. This means that the reform of the PA can no longer be the prerogative only of the Ministry of Public Administration, but also of the Ministry of Economy and Finance: mapping the state of health of the Administrations means providing the MEF with a compass for allocating the European funds that will arrive focusing on merit and, therefore, on the quality of spending, rewarding the most virtuous Administrations and encouraging those that are not virtuous enough.
This does not mean, of course, that less performing and more opaque Administrations should not be supported. In full compliance with the equalization principle of our Constitution, the Government must be able to condition aid to a serious commitment to strengthening administrative capacity. In other words, the PAs will have more incentive to carry out that strengthening if at least part of the distribution of the Recovery Fund depends on it. Reputational incentives will then be added to the financial incentives: the former, in fact, by allowing Regions and Municipalities to offer more services and investments in the territories, are able to increase citizen satisfaction and, consequently, the institution's reputation public.
The double incentive - financial and reputational - deriving from the knowledge and evaluation of the PAs was explained very clearly by the Commission for the Evaluation, Transparency and Integrity of Public Administrations (CIVIT, now become ANAC): "Measurement systems assume an even more relevant character in situations of negative economic cycle" at least for "two orders of reasons: the first relating to the satisfaction of citizens' needs and the second relating to the better ability to choose and select by the competent authorities with regard to the resource allocation. As for the first profile (…) citizen satisfaction and involvement are the real engine of improvement and innovation processes. As for the second profile, performance measurement makes it possible to improve the allocation of resources between the various structures, rewarding virtuous and excellent ones and reducing waste and inefficiencies." These are words written in 2012, but which come back very current. If Italy starts that virtuous trend - getting to know the PAs, supporting them in their improvement, distributing European funds on the basis of merit and commitment - it will be able to attract, after the Recovery Fund, also private capital, for example institutional investment, and those of international investors. Capitals which, like the European ones, invest in a country not only for its projects, but above all for the credibility of its institutions.
