Quality and quantity of laws, fragmentation of the bureaucracy at a territorial level, relationship between politics and public administration. These are the three macro-areas of intervention identified by the bicameral commission for simplification, which - after three months of hearings with representatives of businesses, consumers and institutions, including the OECD - published the results of its survey on the world of laws and administration.
“We need a radical reform, a cultural leap – said Bruno Tabacci, president of the commission today, presenting the document to Montecitorio -. It is an absolute requirement", starting with the linguistic level, given that even today "laws are incomprehensible to citizens because of the too many cross-references they contain", and often "not even parliamentarians are able to understand the texts they vote for" .
The final document of the investigation, approved unanimously by the various political forces, indicates a series of possible measures to deforest the Italian forest of legislative and administrative regulations. Here are the main ones:
– implement the digitization in progress and build a single IT network to bring together all the public administrations;
– overcome the legislation for ads and the so-called “manifest standards”, remained a dead letter due to the lack of green light for the implementing decrees;
– intervene on key sectors to free up resources useful for growth, reducing bureaucracy in matters of taxation, construction, the environment, landscape and cultural heritage;
– create aOnline agenda for simplification that identifies objectives, responsibilities, deadlines and methods of verification;
– strengthen cooperation between the State, Regions and local autonomies to implement the simplification program together, starting with standardization of forms and procedures;
- launch a new and stringent program of liberalizations, "after years of announcements that remained without effect, as widely reported during the survey";
- draw up unique codes and texts, also with the help of the Council of State, starting from the production of consolidated texts as a first step towards the reorganization of sectoral regulations, also with a view to administrative simplification.
Furthermore, according to the commission, “one cannot imagine a real simplification if one is not relaunched public administration reform”: in particular, “the necessary hierarchies and reciprocal responsibilities must be re-established between politics and administration, also returning to the fundamental principle of access to the public administration by public competition”, which favors merit and also takes into account computer skills.
"Complicating things is an all-Italian skill - commented Laura Boldrini, president of the Chamber, who spoke at the presentation of the survey -, but simplifying means having more transparency, more democracy and more opportunities for growth, in a State that must be refounded on a new social pact between institutions and public administrations on the one hand, businesses and citizens on the other. The lack of trust leads to the proliferation of rules, which in turn favors the derogation from the rules themselves, if not corruption, as is evident from the recent episodes linked to the Expo. More streamlined procedures are needed, which also make field checks and inspections more effective, with possible sanctions".
All this to achieve an objective of general interest: "Free up the many energies that we are unable to exploit today - concluded Boldrini -, because bureaucratic difficulties mean that anyone with ideas chooses not to implement them in our country, but to go abroad. It's a huge loss."
