The PNRR is a good opportunity for the Italian State, "but attention to its implementation remains particularly high and the overall judgment can only be outlined at the end of the year". The Court of Auditors has examined the progress of the interventions of the Plan which in these days of the electoral campaign is being judged by the political alignments. It will be recalled that Draghi had to rewrite it from top to bottom to get it through to Brussels. It is certainly not politics that moves the findings of the accounting judiciary. They are additional evaluations to those of the Regions who ask for certainties about what to do. The Court carried out a qualitative and quantitative sampling on 31 of the 45 interventions included in the Plan and on the achievement of the objectives for the first half of 2022. The first impact was positive but the coming months will be particularly important for understanding which works will really be grounded on schedule. On the other hand, it is known that iInfrastructure, energy and digitization are the cornerstones on which the Draghi government has focused.
The Court of Auditors controls the financial flows
The Court's audit was carried out following the timescales envisaged for the implementation of the related interventions. There has been specific attention to the issues of environmental protection and health, labor policies and sustainable development, digitalisation, internationalisation, education, inclusion and social support. Not all is well, however. ” Substantial critical issues have emerged, in a context, such as the current one, which has seen the economic and financial picture change with respect to the initial forecasts, causing the emergence of elements of uncertainty destined to influence the rise in the construction costs of some projects”, write the judges. The bureaucratic machine runs slowly because there are difficulties in the spending capacity of individual administrations. It actually occurs that a greater availability and a greater use of resources deriving from the PNRR do not correspond to real development capacities. In short, Italy is running some risk of remaining halfway. Administrative intricacies generate diseconomies which, precisely in sectors such as energy, the environment and health, can become a worrying boomerang compared to what Europe has planned and achieved.
Watch out for companies engaged in projects
Administrative structures need to be strengthened at many levels. Their strengthening and "the adequacy of the human resources being recruited are essential elements for the implementation of the interventions, as well as adequate technical assistance activities that guarantee the carrying out of the actions connected to the achievement of the objectives". If the technical assistance that the institutions need cannot be financed with the funds of the Plan - notes the Court of Auditors - help will have to come from the portal inaugurated in June "Capacity Italy". However, in the Court's analysis there is attention to the companies involved in the works. At the conclusion of the PNRR, in order to have a return to ordinary management, the State will have to guarantee the stabilization of the financial flows destined for local administrations. It is more than an administrative necessity; above all to avoid the suffering of companies that have calibrated their organization and corporate strategies on the current entity of the economic and financial stimuli.
