The new Report on the Public Rating of the Regions has just been published by Ed. Rubbettino.
The new Report offers a comparative mapping of the transparency, integrity and efficiency of the Italian Regions: carried out in 2020, it is based on the data published by the Regions themselves on their respective websites based on the publication obligations established by current legislation.
Why the Regions? Because they will be called upon to manage part of the European funds.
The post-Covid 19 economic recovery, in fact, 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 the political debate, however, attention seems to focus almost exclusively on which investment projects to choose – if more for the green economy or for digitization - and on who will have to manage the related European aid. 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 for the recovery plan "Next Generation EU” you do not risk being wasted.
The problem is that in Italy, to date, there is no mapping of that institutional capacity, except limited to some categories of data. This Report, based on the Public Rating methodology, tries to lay the foundations for that mapping, providing a sort of due diligence of the administrative apparatus of the Regions, to understand if and how they are ready to participate in the European recovery plan for the post-pandemic.
That due diligence it is the first requirement for attracting investors to our country, be they from the European Union or private funds: it is starting from this that the Italian Government can validate the investment program to be presented in Europe, accompanying it with a detailed plan for institutional strengthening of the Administrations called to be the main actors of investment and spending in the territories.
Without that plan, European money will be of little use, like petrol injected into a car with a broken engine and flat tires. Outside its borders, Italy must demonstrate that it knows the engine of its public machine and that it knows where and how to intervene to restore it.
Before putting the gasoline of Next Generation EU, not after.
