The work of Municipalities and Regions could in the near future also be evaluated according to the Public Rating devised by the Foundation.
Fondazione Etica is a foundation that defines itself as independent and non-profit and which mainly deals with innovation in the public system and in social policies. It issues "qualitative ratings" on various types of administrations and has drawn up a couple of annual reports that have had Regions and Municipalities as their subject. The evaluation methodology, conceived and developed by the foundation and called "Public Rating" (REP), analyzes and "distributes verdicts" focusing on six macro-areas considered characteristic of each administration: the economic-financial profile; governance (whose two main aspects taken into consideration would be transparency and the ability to measure one's own performance); personnel management; the provision of services to citizens; procurement management and anti-corruption; the environment. Well, Fondazione Etica has announced on its website that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Regional Affairs and Autonomy of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers focused precisely on enhancing the REP. It would be, we read, a very important recognition because the scientific correctness and operational usefulness of the tool developed by the foundation would be recognised, at the highest institutional level, "reserving the right to use it as a leverage for the evaluation and organizational redesign of the Municipalities within the framework of the reorganization of local autonomies".
The objectives of the collaboration, as they would have been formalized in the protocol (unfortunately not viewable on the foundation's website) concern the promotion of transparency and accountability of public administrations; the improvement of the general performance, acting in particular on the quality, effectiveness and accessibility of the services rendered and carrying out a review of the expenditure aimed at containing and optimizing it; the improvement of the relationship between citizens and central administration also through the widespread implementation of the constitutional principle of horizontal subsidiarity, responsible participation and inclusion; the support of civic evaluation practices as a form of active participation of citizens in the administration of their Municipality and Region; the contrast of corruption with a preventive action of transparency of the public administration and active monitoring of its action by the citizens. The methods established for the achievement of these objectives include, among other things – as the Fondazione Etica press release states – the development of “a technological platform that facilitates the collection and making available to citizens of data for which there is an obligation of transparency pursuant to current provisions and which also highlights, for the purpose of combating corruption phenomena, statistically significant data and elements on which to direct the self-control functions within the framework of the respective anti-corruption plans". The foundation therefore declares itself “particularly pleased that the REP was chosen as a cognitive and operational tool to be placed at the basis of this technological development of national value.
