Bureaucracy: every country has what it deserves, one might say after reading the survey on public administrations prepared by the Confcommercio Study Centre. “If Italy had, for example, the same quality of administration as Germany – reads the research – between 2009 and 2018 the cumulative growth would have been 6,2% instead of 2,3% and the level of gross product would be higher by about 70 billion euro".
Pretty impressive numbers but documented since Quality of Government Index of the University of Gothenburg. The indicator developed by the Swedish university is made up of three pillars: level of corruption, characteristics of the legislation and observance of the law, quality of the bureaucracy in the strict sense. Based on the index, not only is Italy rather far from the best positions in the OECD area but, unfortunately, it continues to lose positions in the international rankings over time. “Out of 36 OECD countries - confirms the survey - Italy slips from the mediocre 26th position in 2000 to the very bad 33rd, third from last, in 2018. The level of quality of the bureaucracy is therefore far from the standard of the best among the advanced economies ” .
Here is the graph elaborated based on the Quality of Government Index:
The conclusion reached by the Confcommercio Study Center, just as it is discussing the difficulties of the crisis and the risks for the autumn recovery, is that “with better bureaucracy there would also be clear benefits for public finances as well. In fact, higher GDP growth would generate higher revenues, lower deficits and, therefore, lower debt both in terms of stock size and in relation to GDP. In conclusion, there is ample room for improving the country's economic well-being and this can be done with strategies that do not require more resources or imaginative recipes: one of the most profitable and long-term is simply to improve the quality of the public administration".
“Today the restart of our economy is at risk. The Government can and must simplify procedures for a more efficient and secure country, with lower costs and more investments in training and new technologies. An opportunity not to be missed”: this is the request of the president of Confcommercio, Carlo Sangalli.
