The right remains allergic to the control of authorities independent of political power. The observation is ripped out of the mouth by the Fratelli d’Italia bill which from next week will be put to the vote in the Constitutional Affairs and Justice commissions of the Chamber, and which will place new constraints on the Court of Auditors in the control of administrative acts, in particular on those concerning the Pnrr, which is proceeding with serious delays.
The proposal may appear as an aid to Minister Raffaele Fitto, who had the task of getting the implementation of the Pnrr underway, and who will now go to Europe to monitor the implementation of the Pnrr in EU countries.
First of all, the proposed law limits the liability for damage to the treasury for all administrative acts to situations of fraud only, excluding gross negligence.
The current law excludes «the seriousness of the fault when the harmful fact originates from the issuing of an act endorsed and registered during the preventive control of legitimacy, limited to the profiles taken into consideration in the exercise of the control».
Well, the proposal eliminates the last sentence, so that the simple check of legitimacy of one of the profiles clears up the entire act, excluding the accusation of gross negligence and the consequent damage to the treasury.
The accompanying report explains that this rule and the others in the proposal serve to overcome the “firmite”, i.e. the “fear of signing” of public administrators.
Furthermore, where the Court ends up convicting for serious negligence (therefore in cases in which there has been no prior control of legitimacy), the “reduction” paid by the convicted person, i.e. the sanction to cover the treasury damage caused to the administration , will range from 150 euros to a maximum of two years’ salary.
To close the circle, the proposed law requires that an insurance policy be included in the ancillary part of the manager’s contract that covers damage to the administration’s assets caused by gross negligence. The superficial manager will therefore not risk anything. So much so that the dossier from the Chamber’s research office reminds us that this rule contrasts with the ban on this type of policy provided for by our laws. In fact, the administration would end up being its own creditor.
As regards all the calls for tenders of the Pnrr, the new text provides for the possibility not only for the central State, but for all public administrations (regions, municipalities, etc.), to request preventive control of legitimacy from the Court of Auditors, thus to cover every act from the accusation to the public official of damage to the treasury due to gross negligence.
But it is the second article that overturns the function of supervisory authority of the Court of Auditors, attributing to it a new consultative competence.
For the calls for tenders for the Pnrr, all administrations, whether central, regional or local, will be able to ask for an opinion not only on the legitimacy of public accounting (as is already foreseen today), but also on “concrete cases” connected precisely to the implementation of the Pnrr, the value exceeding one million euros. The opinion must be given within one month, and if it does not arrive within this period of time it will be deemed to be given in accordance with what was proposed by the requesting administration, for the purposes of excluding the seriousness of the fault.
Fitto and his successor as minister at the Pnrr are also satisfied by the third article of the bill. The public official responsible for the implementation of proceedings for which there is a delay of more than 10% with respect to the time established for the conclusion of the proceedings, is subject to a pecuniary sanction, based on the seriousness of the fault, from 150 euros up to two years. of the overall gross annual salary. And there is no insurance policy for him here. In short, “adelante Pedro”, even without judgment.
