The goal of achieving a new normality in the general economic and corporate structures in a reasonably short time, especially after the marked economic crisis triggered by the Covid '19 pandemic, certainly cannot make us overlook the urgent needs of this transition period. Necessities, which can be summed up in the principle of not letting the guards down on the part of the safeguards of legality towards economic crime, ready to seize the opportunities offered by the new vulnerabilities of the public administration, businesses and natural persons who perform roles and functions of significant impact.
This is probably the main message that emerged from a discussion among many voices, which took place at the conclusion of the XNUMXth edition of the second level Anti-corruption Master's degree at the Tor Vergata University in Rome.
The reflections of National Antimafia and Counterterrorism Prosecutor, Federico Cafiero de Raho, have given us the image of “mafia organizations so adept at picking up the signs of economic collapse in the various production and service sectors to quickly insert themselves; how expert in using the instrument of corruption in the Public Administration sector, taking advantage of the aspects of procedural opacity and organizational cumbersomeness that not infrequently characterize it”.
The development and refinement of financial flow analysis tools, in particular the SOS – Reporting of Suspicious Transactions, constitute the antidote to adequately face and contrast the attacks of crime on the economic circuits. In this context, along the broader path of support for the economy, for the National Prosecutor, specific attention must be paid by the legality safeguards to the application fruits of technological innovation applied to the financial sector, always with a view to "preventing the infiltration of the mafias in the legal economy, the acquisition of economic activities in crisis, consensus and social recruitment”.
From the voice of the ordinary judiciary to that, so to speak of an economic nature, represented by the Deputy Director of the Bank of Italy Alessandra Perrazzelli, who, in outlining the new scenarios of near-future finance and the related risks, firmly drew attention "to the importance of the value expressed by information" and to the need for greater knowledge and awareness of the risks inherent in our digital operations. In this perspective, according to a line of thought that the Bank of Italy itself has been promoting for some time in Italy, "financial education responds to the specific need for digital education, to make people aware that the ease of a tap on one smartphone it has a cost in terms of a minor privacy and that personal data are assets worthy of protection.”
The quality aspect of economic action found in the words of Mario Nava, Director General of the "Support for Structural Reforms" Directorate of the European Commission, adequate emphasis. In fact, "the recovery capacity of Europe and of the individual States depends on how the funds made available will be spent at the national level, a fundamental role falling to the public administrations". This is why the role of the Commission in supporting the Member States is important and, in particular, the technical support for reforms which can prove to be "a powerful tool to provide the expertise necessary to increase administrative capacity and reform the public administration"
To complete the array of institutional voices intervening in this debate on the scenario of a new normality, in which the ethical aspects are intertwined with the technical-economic ones, there were the contributions provided by Carmelo Barbagallo, President of the Supervision and Financial Information Authority of the Vatican State (ASIF) and by Pasquale Angelosanto, Commander of the Special Operations Group of the Carabinieri.
For Barbagallo, who said that the Vatican has already decided for some time to equip itself with control structures and rules worthy of international best practices, "the establishment of the Control Authority and the decision to participate in the two international circuits Moneyval and Egmont represent two significant stages of this important journey”. An orientation, which springs from the conviction that “conforming to ethical principles helps national legal systems to face the risks of the so-called new normality and, before that, those of the transition towards it. In a period in which, in order to counter the increase in poverty and restart the engine of economic recovery, the financial support of the States greatly increases the liquidity in circulation and, at the same time, defenses could be lowered against the potential risks of corruption and money laundering, ethical tension must remain maximum”.
For his part Angelosanto, on the strength of his own experience in combating crime in its various forms, gained in the field, affirmed that "it is necessary to act on the level of governance, to intervene in the field of rules of good functioning on those who manage public affairs to obtain real membership which is essential for the functioning of the administrative machinery of the State”. Indeed, “ethics cannot be reduced to a set of normative precepts; it is something that goes further, combining in itself the sense of service to the community and the interest of others”.
As for the voice of businesses Massimiliano Burelli, Administrator Delegate of Special Steels of Terni, starting from the consideration that "in the new, more dematerialized normality, governance plays an increasingly important role and will have to take into account amplified scenarios of IT fraud and increasingly easy identity theft", he outlined directions for risk mitigation measures: “ greater investments on the front of technological security and strengthening of internal processes in the cross-referencing of data and preventive information of business counterparts, broadening, also through training, the sensitivity of organizations on these issues”.
He echoed him Nicola Allocca, Risk Compliance and Business Continuity Director of Autostrade per l'Italia, who peremptorily affirmed: "it is necessary to start a governance revolution that determines a cultural evolution, new company functions and roles, different managerial balances and further result targets". In this perspective, it is necessary "to abandon the logic of maximization and re-found the corporate philosophy on optimizing profits ... profit must be guaranteed by an adequate, operational, effective and limited internal control system within ethical and sustainability principles" . It follows that neglecting the internal control system is truly absurd: "not investing in the internal control system is like stopping the clock to save time!".
And finally, a light of hope has been lit in his conclusions since Director of the Master Emiliano di Carlo, for which an alternative positive reading of the pandemic crisis must be pursued. “In fact, Covid can inspire a more virtuous economy. To this end, corporate governance must be oriented towards promoting the common good of stakeholders and the wider community... Covid has made it clear how much the good of the individual depends on the interest of the community and vice versa".
Once again, therefore, the combination of ethics and economics appears, even in the new articulations and in the post-pandemic perspective, truly indissoluble!
