To make apublic infrastructure, in Central-Northern Italy it takes an average of 415 days, while in the South 475. A difference of about two months: it's not a little, but not a tragedy either. It is a pity that these data refer only to the execution phase of the works. If we add design, post-design and assignment, the count gets much higher: 755 days in the Centre-North and 1.010 in the South. The gap then multiplies by four, reaching 255 days, about eight and a half months. The numbers are contained in the last one Bank of Italy annual report, which elaborates Anac and OpenBDAP data relating to the period 2012-2020.
Bank of Italy annual report: the objectives of the Pnrr and the role of human capital
Via Nazionale recalls that, to address the problem, the Pnrr "provides for specific acceleration objectives of both the awarding procedures and the executive phases, to be achieved through interventions that act along three main lines: the reform of the Public Contracts Code, the qualification of the contracting authorities and the specific training of personnel".
The last point should not be underestimated, because, in the management of public works, the human capital makes the difference more than you think: "Other conditions being equal - writes Bankitalia - a greater presence of women and young people in the workforce of local administrations is associated with shorter durations for most of the phases" of the construction of the works.
Decline in personnel and blockage of generational turnover
Precisely on these points the South is particularly lacking, because the decline in employees recorded throughout the country in recent years, it was more intense "for the southern territorial entities, due to the precariousness of their budgetary conditions and the consequent application of more stringent limitations on personnel turnover".
The block on generational turnover has prevented “the entry of up-to-date skills – continues Via Nazionale – It follows that i public employees in the southern regions they are average older, less educated and more focused on tasks with a low technical-specialist content".
Recruitment, Bank of Italy criticizes stabilizations: "Competitions are better"
Not only that: Bankitalia also points the finger against the methods of recruitment followed in the last decade, which in the South “have favored the use of stabilization of precarious workers at the expense of competitions which could have allowed for a more targeted selection of personnel”.
To all this is added, in the southern territorial entities, "a lower diffusion of digital technologies, whose role is crucial to improve productivity and to increase the range of services offered by the administrations", underlines Via Nazionale.
Organized crime: defeating it can be worth 0,5% of GDP a year
As for organized crime, "which, in addition to directly affecting economic activity, also influences public action by distorting its aims and reducing its effectiveness", the Central Bank estimates that, in the long term, "the elimination of the mafia presence could raise the growth rate of Southern Italy's GDP by 0,5 percentage points a year".
All these indicators return a still very discouraging picture of the quality of public action in the South, which is "significantly lower than the Italian average, however low in international comparison", concludes Bankitalia.
