Public Administration, Engine of Change

MOST OF THE WORK OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATORS WILL DEAL WITH THE ROLLOUT OF THE ITALIAN NATIONAL RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE PLAN. FOR THIS REASON IT IS ESSENTIAL TO MODIFY THE CONTEXT IN WHICH THEY OPERATE BY ALLOWING MORE DISCRETION AND GIVING MORE TRUST TO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONS AFTER DECADES OF SUSPICION

by Miriam Allena, Associate Professor of Administrative Law, Bocconi University

In 2022, the first appraisal by the European Commission has begun on the reforms and investments that our country must implement in order to access the various funds earmarked for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR): every six months Italy must in fact demonstrate that it has implemented qualitative objectives (e.g. the so-called milestones, concerning the approval of various reform laws) and quantitative oned (measurable targets, such as the reduction of the gender gap in wages or the reduction of cases pending in the courts by a certain amount) in order to continue to receive funds from Brussels, and avoid the suspension or - for the most serious violations - even the revocation of the funds granted with the consequent obligation to repay them.

Certain objectives, such as the approval of reform laws, are to some extent already implemented or in the process of being implemented: which is certainly positive, given that it is good rules that create the systemic conditions that enable change. However, it is clear to everyone that one thing is to approve a reform, and quite another to implement the concrete administrative actions that give flesh to that reform: implementing the ecological transition and the digitalization of public administration, projects for urban regeneration (of which an essential component is the strengthening of social housing) and for sustainable mobility, trebling renewable electricity power generation in less than ten years , building the infrastructure necessary for the economic revival of the country, reducing youth unemployment and supporting the participation of women in the labor market also through the strengthening of childcare services, to name but a few.

The goal-oriented tension that runs through the entire text of the PNRR therefore puts public administrations back at the center as essential and fundamental actors for carrying out those structural changes in the Italian society and economy that have long been discussed.

Yet, even if in many cases Italian public administration has shown that it knows how to be virtuous and deliver results (the success of the vaccination campaign is an example), we also know its limits very well: excessive procrastination and fear of signing, excessive bureaucratization of administrative processes, and so on.

So, the question arises: will the Italian administration be up to the task? Among the approved reforms there is an extraordinary recruitment program of technical personnel aimed at strengthening the specialized skills (and not only those) of public administrations at various levels (Decree 80/2021): this is certainly an important step, but let's not forget that many good skills in administrations already exist. So?

The truth is that it is the context that will make the difference: it will be necessary to trust the administration more which means, in legal terms, to give it more discretion, to recognize that the implementation of the PNRR will depend to a large extent on the ability of officials to weigh up the interests at stake and to make the right decisions. With all due respect for the fear of corruption and abuses which has looked at discretion with suspicion over the past four decades, reducing it to the point of almost nullifying it, both during the procedures (the sclerotization of procedures for public procurement and public competitions are the most striking example of that) and in the context of trials (where the judicial review of administrative courts has become increasingly penetrating).

A more recent version of this tendency is the enthusiasm for algorithmic decisions which by fixing administrative actions, would guarantee - according to some - absolutely impartial solutions and optimal decisions.

Now that the funds are there (after years of spending review), the time has come to change the paradigm and perhaps, more simply, approach: it must be recognized that administrations are the actors that are most legitimized to make certain choices and that to a large extent it will be individual administrators (good officials but also the perception that civil society will have of them) that will ferry us towards change.