Take the spending review and multiply it by four. This is what has happened in recent weeks at the Treasury. Yesterday the Ministry of the Economy announced that it had raised the bar for the review of public spending: the new goal is to save 32 billion between next year and 2016, against the just over eight billion indicated in the original text of the law id Stability.
“This process must have an ambitious, significant objective – said the number one in via XX Settembre, Fabrizio Saccomanni, presenting the first report of the new commissioner for the expenditure review, Carlo Cottarelli, at Palazzo Chigi -. We quantified it at about two points of GDP compared to 2013 over the three-year period 2014-2016. The goal is to improve the quality of services by reducing their cost”.
In recent days, the European Commission has asked Italy to further reduce the public debt and the structural deficit as early as next year, acting precisely on the spending review. Saccomanni accepted Brussels' solicitation, without however renouncing the idea of using the savings to finance interventions to support the economy.
The 32 billion "must go mostly to tax cuts, as had been foreseen and repeatedly indicated, but also to finance productive investments and reduce the public debt. These are the three strategic aims, of which the first is naturally the most important”, explained the former general manager of the Bank of Italy.
"There is no decision on the distribution over time [of the savings], a survey is needed", explained Cottarelli, who undertook to formulate the first proposals "by the end of February". The overall plan will see the light between March and April, in time for the update of the public finance framework contained in the Economic and Financial Document (Def).
Cottarelli assured that he wanted to give "enormous importance to transparency", announcing "indexes and rankings" with which to identify the most efficient spending bodies. The commissioner will make use of 10-12 people, around whom “around twenty working groups will operate. We will frequently consult the social partners: an approach to build consensus”, concluded the Commissioner.
