After starting the first cuts to the costs of politics, Enrico Letta and Fabrizio Saccomanni would like to give a strong signal also on the 190 appointments scheduled at the top of the 32 public companies directly controlled by the Treasury and those in which Treasury control is indirect, but there is. At stake are the command posts of Eni, Enel, Ferrovie dello Stato, Terna, the Post Office, Finmeccanica, Sace and many other public companies more or less close to expiring.
To mark a turning point, the Government is focusing on criteria of honourability (away from those with pending charges with the judiciary), eligibility (public companies cannot be a refugium sinrum of trumped in the elections), professionalism (the performances of the past years must still count for something , because those with brilliant balance sheets and those who accumulate losses or debts borne by taxpayers cannot be put on the same level), age (managers should retire after 70), limit on the number of mandates (no more than three i.e. 9 years – in the same company) and salary cap. The intentions are excellent but it is not certain that they become reality.
Pdl and Pd are lurking and tomorrow could be the day of truth with the definitive presentation of the bipartisan parliamentary motion of which Pd senator Tomaselli is the first signatory. The day before, however, does not bode well. The Democratic Party would like to lay the foundations for taking the lion's share in future appointments as if it had swept the political elections. The PDL, sensitive to the wishes of the great state boyars close to Silvio Berlusconi, would instead like to blow up the ceiling of three consecutive mandates, make the rules on ineligibility more relaxed and open the doors to former parliamentarians and trumped-ups of various kinds, in spite of of professionalism. Less space seems to be given to merit, i.e. a public assessment of the financial results of the various companies in the field.
To fear the worst is the move decided in the days by the vice president of the Senate Linda Lanzillotta, standard bearer of meritocracy also in the public sector, who withdrew the signature of Civic Choice from the Tomaselli motion after the preventive rejection by Pd and Pdl of his amendments on the ceiling of three consecutive terms and 70 years of age for public managers and on the barrier to political trumpets.
We'll see how it ends, but if politics thinks of recovering credibility at the expense of taxpayers with backroom games, it's very wrong and then don't come and complain if abstention grows in the elections.
