Municipalities better managed from a financial point of view? They are all from the North: Parma, Cuneo and Treviso. While in the last places there are Potenza, Cosenza and Terni. These are the results of the new Fondazione Etica report which for the second consecutive year compared local administrations on a sample basis. The analysis is based on the data that the administrations themselves are required to publish in compliance with the regulatory obligations on transparency, efficiency and anti-corruption.
The second Municipal Rating Report, which will be ready at the end of the year, refers to 2015 data but the Foundation anticipates the results concerning the first macro-area analysed: the balance sheet and the economic-financial profile. The analysis concerns a provincial capital for each Italian Region, taking into account the geographical distribution between North, Center and South; the demographic size (large, medium and small municipalities) and per capita income. The results? As in 2014, also in 2015 the municipalities of the North are more virtuous than those of the South. A commonplace that proves to be well founded even if there are exceptions: Olbia and Campobasso, for example, qualify among the municipalities with above average ratings (59.7 out of 100) surpassing municipalities in central Italy such as Grosseto and Ancona.
However, if it is true, on the one hand, that some municipalities in the South were ranked among those with the best rating, it is also true that no municipality in the North was ranked among the worst. On the other hand, the municipalities of the Center do not excel, nor, contrary to what one would have expected, those of the Regions with a special statute (apart from Olbia, fourth in the standings). However, it must be said that they remain with a very high overall performance.
Instead, the myth that municipalities with lower tax burdens are more virtuous has been dispelled: Parma, for example, has one of the highest tax burdens in the sample, with over one thousand euros per capita. Yet it is first in the standings. "It means - explains Paola Caporossi, co-founder of the Ethical Foundation - that taxes are not automatically negative for citizens, it depends on how the related proceeds are used in terms of services". Nor is it true that municipalities that spend less on personnel are more efficient. Indeed where, for example, there are few managers, the municipality is more penalized in its performance. "Cuneo, for example, has more executives than all - Caporossi points out - but it is in second place in the standings, a sign that competent and well-prepared executives perform well".
In terms of investments, however, most of the municipalities that spend the most are not in the North: the highest percentage for 2015 belongs to Frosinone and, after Cuneo, also to Brindisi. But Frosinone was subjected to a financial rebalancing procedure to remedy a "gap" of 50 million euros in debt and Brindisi was under the commissioner until the next elections. "Once again - underlines Caporossi - that it is not the how much that is important but the how".
(Corriere della Sera – 8 October 2017)
