“Reducing, but above all rationalizing the machinery of public administrations, is the main test to which the Government is called. It is a question of truly applying the concept of the spending review which does not mean cutting a bit from all sides, but carrying out an in-depth examination of the value of each service and deciding where to cut and where instead to allocate resources differently to enhance the offer" .
Linda Lanzillotta, member of the mixed group, she is a real expert on the state machine. You have tried several times both when you were in the Government and from the benches of Parliament to insert evaluation criteria into the laws that would push towards a reduction and greater efficiency of spending, or to reduce the enormous number of companies created by local institutions . Each time you have come up against (even collecting some disappointments) with the strong resistance of the many lobbies that thrive on public spending and of the same political forces that have based their power on the intermediation of public money.
Now it's Monti's turn to take on the challenge of changing our public system in order to have, as he himself said, a leaner and more efficient state.
“Yes, we must be aware that we have too many institutional levels that we can no longer support. It is necessary to proceed expeditiously with the unification of the small municipalities, to make a real reduction of the Provinces and not only transform some of them into metropolitan areas, thus changing only the name, and in any case all must become second-level entities, i.e. not have directly political bodies elected, but become articulations on the territory of the Regions with dimensions such as to be able to offer network services efficiently. In this chapter it is also necessary to address the issue of regions with special statutes that cannot enjoy the privilege of not respecting the standards of other regions. Autonomy does not mean evading the principle of equality enshrined in article 3 of the Constitution and which concerns all Italian citizens regardless of the region in which they live”.
But today the attention of public opinion and political forces is concentrated on the cuts to some services such as health care, and on the reduction of civil servants.
“These are issues that can be tackled quickly even if they will have effects over a certain period of time. To do this efficiently, it is necessary that within the Government itself some ministers do not put themselves in a position of defense and do not assume the role of "trade unionists" of their ministries. In health care, one must start from the observation that expenditure for the purchase of goods and services has increased by 50% in recent years without a corresponding increase in services. It is evident that waste, cronyism and corruption lurk here. It is also necessary to cut small hospitals, precisely in order to have more efficient healthcare, as indeed some regions, such as Tuscany, have done in their area of responsibility. However, everyone can launch further measures to rationalize spending, just think of the price scandal of the various products purchased by the local health authorities, to understand that there is ample room for cutting costs, with the same services, and that this exercise must also be done by the regions that do not have deficits, because in this way they can contribute to the reduction of both local and national taxes".
The unions are on a war footing over the perceived reduction of 20% of managers and 10% of civil servants. They threaten a general strike and in any case do not want the contributions that their patronages collect from public bodies to be reduced to help citizens carry out the generally very complicated procedures with those same bodies.
“In general they must say that it would not be correct if the reduction of public employees were applied in a linear way to all administrations. It is necessary to go and see selectively the offices that can be merged or eliminated, and those, such as the research or inspection functions, which instead must even be strengthened. But this certainly entails an extra commitment for the ministers: they must reorganize their sectors by cutting what they consider not very productive and concentrating on the decisive functions. But even the trade unions can't just build a wall with an attitude that in fact results in an uncritical defense of everything that exists. This is also politically unsustainable, as it leads to acceptable discrimination against private sector workers who are bearing the full brunt of the crisis. In this field I am very concerned about the rumors according to which, to facilitate the outcome of civil servants, a derogation from the Fornero reform would be launched so as to be able to retire people according to the previous parameters. In my opinion – says Lanzillotta – it would be a very serious mistake. I understand that there would be an advantage for the State as the pension is lower than the salary it currently pays to the employee in service, but this would lead to unacceptable discrimination against the private sector where workers have to remain in service longer and companies they are obliged to keep the oldest and dearest people.”
Last but certainly not least, the reduction of entities and companies created at local government level. It has been talked about for years but progress has so far been modest.
“In fact, there are rules in this field, but their application is always postponed. There are instrumental companies, such as IT or cleaning companies that need to be reabsorbed into the public administration and there are local public service companies that need to be partially privatized or whose services need to be tendered out. In these cases, however, the rules are there. What is missing is the creation of an inspection body capable of enforcing them and perhaps legislation that allows the most diligent administrations to be rewarded in applying the law and to punish those who linger and do nothing”.
We realize that the topic is very vast and complex. It is a question of re-founding our state on a different basis, of greater efficiency but also of greater effectiveness in providing services to citizens.
“We must proceed with determination and with correct rules. Everyone has understood that the economy of a country cannot be sustained with wasteful public spending. In fact, all systems must be examined. For example, we should also start talking about the unification of too many police forces that we have. Is it possible that while we are talking about creating a European army, we are not able to give a more rational and certainly less expensive structure to internal security?”
There is a lot of work to be done not only for the Monti government, but certainly also for the governments that will come after the 2013 elections.
