Improve public spending. In Commissioner Paolo Cottarelli's plans, the strategy is clear: to hit those who waste the most, saving services for citizens. Then improve purchases, attacking the mountain of 129 billion served in 2013 to buy goods and services, starting with local authorities. It is a bet that Consip has decided to play to the end: assets include the 4,6 billion in savings obtained in 2013 out of 36 of "supervised" spending. This year, not only will the "garrison" expand to another 6 billion, but a real boom is expected for tenders. The central purchasing body of the Treasury banned 10,2 billion in 2013, the unwritten objective circulating in the spending review headquarters is to triple the result over the next three years, bringing it to 32 billion.
«The British call it smart public procurement explains the managing director of Consip, Domenico Casalino – and there is no doubt that an intelligent, coordinated system for public procurement is today the real challenge on which to engage the best state officials. Moreover, it is in this way that precious areas of industrial policy are recovered, the only ones that are perhaps realistically still practicable». With what tools? The Irpef decree under discussion in Parliament adds new levers to relaunch the fight against waste.
Pushes and resistancesThe total value of Consip tenders has grown from 3,7 billion in 2011 to 12,8 billion last year. It is therefore possible to triple. «With the three-year planning of purchases combined with the obligation to centralize them and with the strengthening of controls by the Avcp, the Supervisory Authority on public contracts – adds Casalino – it is possible to obtain important results. The decree draws up a new national system of public purchases». The first rule therefore is the programming that will block the old and bad habit of sine die extensions of contracts, some even dating back to 1995.
Centralized purchasing. But it is above all on the obligation to concentrate purchases from Consip and the regional purchasing offices that the real game will be played: there are now 32.000 contracting authorities in Italy, they will have to be reduced to 35 "aggregators" for large contracts, which are then the ones that matter. The threshold will be set by a decree from the Prime Minister, but it is realistic to hypothesize a gradual path that will allow the system to be strengthened. In fact, out of 1.200.000 public purchases annually, 62 are above the European threshold of 200.000 euros. If this were the reference value, 62.000 tenders would need to be launched in a year, more or less. To get an idea, Consip today manages 1.200 above and below the threshold. We are therefore thinking of an initial value of around 10 million euros (about 3.000 notices a year) to be progressively reduced.
Many distortions.Last year, the Guardia di Finanza brought to light 1,3 billion of fraud and procurement scams, through targeted checks on the four sectors in which 80% of the expenditure for the functioning of the Public Administration is concentrated: energy, telecommunications, vouchers meal, cleaning and property management. In health care, "sensitive" sectors are those of hospital medical waste, armed surveillance (Consip is preparing a tender worth 500 million), catering and the rental of washed linen (it alone is worth 627 million a year). «The tenders cost from 50.000 to 500.000 euros – continues Casalino – it is a complex process. It takes up to 25 months from tender preparation to contract. Concentrating efforts is therefore a necessity».
Municipalities. Recourse to Consip and central purchasing bodies will therefore be the discriminating factor in evaluating the transparency and efficiency of spending in local authorities. Today the Municipalities show a 5% usage rate of the Consip-central purchasing channel against 50% of the ministries and Regions (with peaks of 100% in Tuscany and close to 0% in Calabria). Anyone who moves outside this track will be penalized (up to 10% more cuts) and a first test will take place by June 30 when the sacrifices requested by the decree to finance the Irpef bonus will be distributed. Also in June, all existing contracts will have to be communicated to the Avcp, to be compared with the new tables being published on the reference prices. The squeeze on the Municipalities has its own reason. The greatest recoveries are possible here: today out of 39 billion spent, only 13 are managed by Consip. 25 billion remain out of control: assuming an improvement of 24%, equal to the "discount" certified by Istat on centralized purchases, savings of 5 billion would be obtained.
