Inarcassa Foundation, negative opinion on the delegation of public contracts

“The path of the delegated law on public contracts is of great concern. With the latest changes made by the Senate, we are witnessing – more and more – the return of a statist and highly bureaucratized system for the management of public contracts, which in relation to technicians who practice the profession becomes discriminatory and anti-competitive. The same provision of specific insurance policies to cover professional risks, with charges to be borne by the administrations, leaves no doubt as to the will to entrust the planning tasks to the internal staff of the Public Administration “. This is the comment by the president of the Inarcassa Foundation, Franco Fietta, on the draft law delegating to the government on public contracts approved at first reading in the Senate and now being examined by the Chamber’s environment commission. “This – he argues – is an anachronistic measure which on the one hand excludes structured, experienced and available freelance technicians at competitive prices, while on the other hand it would impose on the PA additional burdens for training and updating staff without – to a large extent – of any specific technical professional experience, the purchase of materials and software necessary to guarantee not only technical and regulatory compliance, but also a resilient design to the challenges that the moment imposes “. “All this – he warns – in a context that already sees the public administration in difficulty in planning and controlling the works, not to mention the record arrears that many municipal offices have accumulated over the years in urban planning. the withdrawal from a monopolistic vision of the system that feeds the area of ​​potential conflicts of interest, without verifying the competitiveness and efficiency of the process, thus to the detriment of the principles of transparency and good performance of the public administration “. “The text approved by the Senate – continues Fietta – does not go in the direction indicated in the parliamentary hearing. We had traced a concrete path to simplify the procedures that would not penalize the quality of the design and the safety of the works. We had asked that the PA focus the own resources on programming and control. We have, however, a totally different and, in some ways, even experimental text. For example, delegation reduces the levels of design. It is an unprecedented solution that does not reconcile with technical standards and other institutes of our legal system and which can compromise the quality of the design and consequently also the safety of the final work itself “. “There is no indication – he points out – against free assignments, although we had presented a proposal that, in compliance with the principle of fair compensation, would ensure the correct use of the criteria by the contracting stations for the purpose of determining professional fees. a revision of the legislation on architectural and engineering services is envisaged to clarify the division of roles and responsibilities of the subjects involved in the execution phases of a public work “. “None of this – he observes – the result is a measure that centralizes and bureaucratizes the management of public contracts and encourages the use of integrated contracts. The phantom of the PNRR makes us back away rather than evolve, a real missed opportunity to reform the code procurement in view of the challenges that await us “.