Csel: “State support municipalities to implement Pnrr programs, an injection of professionalism and skills is needed”

The sums obtained by Europe to support the country’s economic recovery can finance not only reforms and new investments, but also investments already in progress. This means that it will be necessary at a central level to find solutions to allow municipalities to be able to devote themselves to the implementation of investment programs related to the new areas of intervention envisaged by the NRP, such as those on digitization or environmental protection. This is what emerges from a study by the Centro Studi Local Entities (Csel) and commissioned by Adnkronos with respect to the effective implementation capacity of the Municipalities of the numerous interventions provided for in the Pnrr, based on the document of the Court of Auditors illustrated in the commission for the implementation of fiscal federalism . On the four-year period that has just passed (2017-2021), the CSEL explains, the public works still in progress (i.e. not definitively completed) are currently about 41 thousand for a value that exceeds 12 billion euros of investments. Based on the reclassification carried out by researchers from the Study Center, it is mainly the works concerning school and social infrastructures that affect most of the procedures activated, for a value that slightly exceeds 4.3 billion in line with mission 4 of the NRP. Further investments related to Mission 5 follow, of approximately 2 billion, which mainly concern public infrastructures used for various social purposes, especially those related to sport and leisure in general. By accumulating together the data collected on the works relating to ‘school, social and sport’ it clearly emerges that they absorb about two thirds of the total expenditure of the Municipalities. there are also those related to Mission n. 2 and concern investments for the safety of the territory that amount to over 2.3 billion. Therefore, the three missions put together (2,4,5) constitute to date the greatest effort that the municipalities have been able to carry out, in terms of planning and carrying out new works, representing over 80% of the investments financed between 2017 and today. If on the one hand the framework drawn by the researchers offers ideas “for careful planning by the bodies responsible for managing the Plan”, on the other hand it seeks to analyze the effective implementation capacity of the Municipalities. Therefore, explains the CSEL, the research in its second part focuses on the state of realization of the works compared to what was originally planned by the Municipalities and an image of a country that is in some cases extremely efficient appears, in particular on the state of realization of small works. , whose value is around 150 thousand euros, and which, although started at the beginning of the year, are already in an advanced stage of execution over two thirds (68%); compared to higher-value works relating to the previous three-year period (2017-2019), whose average amount is approximately 900 thousand euros, and represent approximately 30% of the works still in the planning phase over the three-year period, while the remaining portion concerns works whose average value is significantly lower, equal to 193 thousand euros, of which only half in the advanced executive phase. field in recent times by the executive and hope for a rapid injection of professionalism and skills in local authorities also by leveraging the numerous companies owned by the same bodies, which constitute an added value to effectively and quickly achieve the objectives set out in the Plan ” . A further point of attention raised by the research concerns the change of vision that the Plan intends to bring to the planning of municipal investments. Quantified at approximately 37 billion the resources of the NRP destined to the municipalities for investments only in the different missions of the plan, it is clear the change of pace imposed on the municipalities, which in addition to having to continue the works already in the pipeline are called to give strong emphasis to investments for the ecological transition from sustainable mobility to energy upgrading of public buildings. The study notes that currently the Municipalities have allocated from their portfolio of existing projects just under 35% of their resources to the mission and component M4C1 (School and social) and 30% to the works relating to the mission and component M5C2 while the Pnrr allocates to the same interventions respectively 12% and 17% of the resources allocated to the Municipalities. Conversely, the mission and component M2C2 (Environment, Energy and Mobility) sees a very high commitment on the NRP of over 23% of the total allocation for Municipalities that see their project portfolio committed for a share not exceeding 7%. the financial statements of the entities are analyzed, the growing trend of almost all municipalities in allocating more and more resources to new investments is confirmed, from 2017 to 2020 expenditure increased by 32% from 9.1 billion to over 12 billion, and part of the annual investments reprogrammed on the basis of actual progress, through the mechanism of the multi-year restricted balance, and which lead the municipalities to be able to leverage conspicuous own resources that exceed 36 billion on the sample observed for 2020 alone.