It arrives on the government table the spending review, the plan for reducing public spending. The Council of Ministers today discussed the report prepared by the minister for relations with Parliament, Piero Giarda, who worked until the last moment to smooth out the corners of the text. The goal is to transform the study into a legal text (probably yet another decree) by the end of May. The question is central to the credibility of the Executive and to keeping accounts, but political resistance is already strong: the Pdl has gotten in the way of any cuts to the Police and Carabinieri, while the Pd does not want to hear about new interventions about the school.
So far the real news is the appointment of a new technician to help Giarda in the “defining the level of expenditure for the purchase of goods and services”: it is about Enrico Bondi, 78, former special commissioner of Parmalat, known to the markets for his healing qualities in companies. His assignment cannot last more than a year and will be assigned by decree.
Giarda does not go overboard on the numbers, but it is thought that the planned interventions could result in savings of about 5 billion. Of these, at least one should be destined for growth, while the other 3/4 (immediate and structural savings) should be directed towards a precise fiscal target: postpone the new VAT increase to the beginning of 2013 scheduled for October, possibly also reducing the further increase in rates.
If the plan fails, in just five months the subsidized rate will rise from 10 to 12% and the ordinary rate from 21 to 23%, with the possibility of a further leap of 0,5% at the beginning of 2014. For this reason it is essential that the cuts are calculated so as to have a significant impact already on this year's budget. The whole without calling into question the much troubled budget balance in 2013, which in reality - according to the Def - will mean reaching a deficit-GDP ratio of 0,5%, not zero.
Let's see what are the main expenditure items in the government's sights
PROVINCES
The ECB has made it known that it is looking "carefully" at the Italian spending review, emphasizing that the unification of the provinces "would be the only real cost-cutting measure for politics". According to the vice president of the Upi, Antonio Saitta, the project would save 5 billion. Furthermore, the Frankfurt proposal "marries perfectly with the one launched by Minister Cancellieri which provides for the rationalization of the peripheral State offices".
With the salva-Italia, the Provinces were assigned functions of political guidance and coordination of the activities of the Municipalities: in fact, an emptying of functions from which savings of 65 million a year are expected. At present, without hypothesizing further cuts in functions or personnel, according to the State Accounting Department, the administration of the Provinces costs 130 million a year.
INTERIORS
The Interior Ministry could be the ministry most affected by the cuts. In the first place there is talk of reducing the number of prefectures: today there are 103, one per province, but the goal would be to ensure that only one survives for every 350 inhabitants. The aim is also to reduce the funds spent on rents: about 30 million a year that the ministry could save by using public buildings.
THE ARMY
It's a short step from the Viminale to the police, but in this field cutting will be much more complicated. The first question concerns the overlap between the Police and the Carabinieri: in all there are about 5.000 Meritorious garrisons who concentrate on territories already controlled by the policemen. Then there are about 30 redundant marshals of the Army to be accommodated in some way, because they do not fall within the plan of the Minister of Defense, Giampaolo Di Paola, which plans to reduce the effective numbers from 180 to 150 by 2024.
But the security front is very hot on the political scene. The president of the Pdl senators, Maurizio Gasparri has already raised his tone: “It is one thing to rationalize purchases and supplies for the right savings, it is another to hypothesize dismantling or reductions of garrisons in the area. On this the PDL will have to be determined. If someone deludes himself into touching Carabinieri stations or police stations, he will be struck down in Parliament ”.
Antonio Di Pietro also agrees: “It is one thing to eliminate immense and useless military expenditures such as the unfortunate purchase of F-35 fighters – recalled the IDV leader -, which should now be 'only' 90 for a cost of about 10 billion euros, a completely different thing to intervene on the forces of order or on their technical equipment”.
LAW COURTS
In all there are 165, with 220 detached sections. They should be streamlined, as should probation staff in prisons and justices of the peace.
SCHOOL
About 90% of public spending on education is absorbed by untouchable salaries. However, about 15% of the billion that will be used for the purchase of goods and services could be saved thanks to the intervention of Consip (the state company for purchases). The secretary of the Democrats, Pier Luigi Bersani, has already expressed the party's opposition to any new intervention on the subject of schools.
TRANSPORTATION
There is great uncertainty about any cuts to the Ministry of Transport. However, cuts on the engine remain possible.
