About ten days ago the government carried out a preliminary examination of 11 legislative decrees implementing the delegation contained in Law 124/2015 ("Madia reform") including the one aimed at reorganizing the shareholdings of public administrations. In the slides, the government announced that from a "before" with "thousands of useless investees that multiply seats and attendance fees and waste of public money" we will move on to an "after" with "immediate cut of useless investees, certain rules to prevent the establishment of those that are not needed, a reduction in salary for directors who do not produce profits”.
Apart from the usual communicative emphasis, there is no doubt that the decree carries out an important work of reorganization in this delicate matter. Naturally the devil lies in the implementation and that remains largely in the hands of those who have contributed to creating municipal capitalism with its 8 investee companies. Nor could it be otherwise, given that Regions and Municipalities are "autonomous bodies" according to the Constitution. It will therefore be necessary to see if the law manages to introduce effective constraints and "limits", a difficult task given that the state legislature has been trying without success for several years.
We see the problem of reducing the number, the "immediate cut" of unnecessary subsidiaries. In reality it is a more modest rationalization where the government has already met some resistance, to put it mildly. In particular, also in last year's stability law an "operational rationalization plan" was envisaged, which was to "achieve the reduction"; the plan was to be adopted by 31 March 2015 but the law did not provide for sanctions in the event of non-compliance. And so these rationalization plans were adopted only by a part of the administrations (about 50% according to a report by the Court of Auditors last July).
The delegated decree finally provides for sanctions even if the amount of the sanction is still blank, at least in the version that I have been able to consult and which circulates on the web; nor is it indicated who is required to contest the infraction or who is required to pay (the administration that did not prepare the plan or whoever manages the shareholdings which, in the case of local authorities, is the mayor?), nor the criteria for establish the amount of the fine between the minimum and the maximum. It would be counterproductive if the government limited itself to threatening without having an effective tool to make the threat credible.
There is also a "curious" slip: in art. 5, with the promising title "burdens of analytical motivation and divestment obligations" there is indeed a precise forecast of the reasons to which the administrations will be required when they set up a new company or acquire a stake in an already established one but of the divestment obligations ... there is no 'is trace.
But let's get to the positive aspects of the decree. We point out a more precise regulation on the provisions that the administrations must make when the investee companies are at a loss (until now the regulation was experimental in nature and would have entered into force only with the 2016 financial statements, while now if it foresees the anticipation to 2015): the objective being pursued is to prevent public finance constraints from being circumvented through outsourcing (which is precisely what has happened in recent years).
And then, in the matter of company crisis, it is specified that the provision of a settlement of losses by the shareholder administration must be accompanied by a company restructuring plan; for shareholder administrations it is also possible to present a report of serious irregularities to the court. In short, greater responsibility for public shareholders. And strict rules for assignments, tokens, fees in an attempt to put an end to a manger of majestic dimensions.
But there is not - and there could not have been, given the absence of an analysis document, a good white paper, to be submitted to public discussion - an industrial project on this world of public investees which in an important part performs services fundamental to the community. It will hopefully be possible to achieve the objective of putting a stop to a phenomenon that has squandered resources but something more is needed to "change towards" completely.
