because there will be no tender for 98% of public works – Corriere.it

They called it the Salvini Code and so the League celebrates it, which identifies the March 28 approval by the CDM of the legislative decree on the new Procurement Code as the springboard for restarting the “Cantiere Italia”. The stop to tenders for public works under 5 million euros decided by the legislative decree means faster procurement – they let Carroccio know -, with a saving of time (only for assignments without a tender we save from six months to a year) , more autonomy for local authorities with particular reference to small municipalities, preferential lane for Italian and European supplies, digitization with saving of paper and bureaucratic tasks.

The exceptions decided during Covid are fully operational

In essence, for the supporters – primarily the minister Matteo Salvini – it is a question of a bureaucracy-cutting Code, opting for a more streamlined invitation procedure; for the detractors, however, the Emergency Code launched by Draghi during the Covid and which is now becoming structural (for the national secretary of the Italian Left, Nicola Fratoianni, the new Code takes work in Italy back by half a century, with less protection for safety of the workers, with wild subcontracting, with the de facto return to exploitation). In fact, the entry into force of the new code implements all the derogations introduced during the pandemic to speed up small and medium-sized contracts, raising the threshold set by the 2016 Code starting from which the tender ‘contract.

The accounts of the Anac

Looking at the latest annual report of the National Anti-Corruption Authority (Anac), one can easily calculate the impact of the structural yield of emergency derogations: 98.7% of public works can be assigned directly or with a negotiated procedure without a tender, therefore without a public tender in which everyone can participate. This is, in practice, almost all of the work. According to Anac, in fact, in 2021 the contracting authorities gave the go-ahead to 62,812 procedures for the assignment of public works (43.4 billion euros), of which 61,731 with a value of less than 5 million euros, i.e. below of the threshold set by the European Union of 5.38 million which triggers the obligation to tender. 98.7% of jobs, in fact.

The other news: shoulder to the party of the No

But the news is not finished. As the League itself explains, the new Procurement Code, the text of which takes into account the opinions expressed by the Unified Conference and the competent parliamentary commissions, gives a shove to the No party, since it provides for qualified dissent, a principle by which public administrations will have a more limited frame in case of objection to a work. Furthermore, from 1 January all information exchanges will take place on a national digital platform, so that companies do not have to present the same documentation more than once, while small Municipalities will be able to proceed with direct assignments of up to 500 thousand euros and for the first year they will have more options to choose the qualified contracting station, widening the fence that previously only included the Provinces. Finally, the smaller Municipalities will have simplifications on personnel: the Rup functions can be entrusted to employees in service even with fixed-term contracts. There is also the clause to speed up payments (the possibility is guaranteed for the executor to issue invoices even at the time of the adoption of the SAL).

Opposition and unions on a war footing. The perplexities of Ance

Perplexities about the new Procurement Code were expressed by ANCE, which through its president, Federico Brancaccio, pointed the finger at the passage relating to competition, particularly in the special sectors which in fact could steal 36% of the volume of contracts from the market public Works. Meanwhile, the oppositions are not resigned (we will put up barricades in the Chamber on the Procurement Code, said Michele Gubitosa, MP of the 5 Star Movement) and the unions are also announcing protests. On April 1 we will be in the streets with the Uil to ask for changes to the government, said Alessandro Genovesi, general secretary of Fillea CGIL, the construction industry category. If no answers arrive, from July 1st, when the new Procurement Code will come into force – explains the secretary in an interview with The Republic – we are ready to start a season of union and legal disputes starting from the responsibilities of the contracting stations: Municipalities, Regions, Anas, Railways. Here we have gone from doing it quickly and well, to spending regardless and not necessarily well.

A less transparent market?

Genovesi does not like the new Procurement Code because this left-handed government maintains, on paper, the protections it has conquered over the years: equal economic treatment and the same contract for contracted and subcontracted workers, the congruity Durc, respect for national construction contract. But with his right hand he effectively removes them, extending the subcontract without limits and increasing the risk of infiltrations, the trade unionist points out, adding: The market will be less transparent with the direct assignment or invitation to tender of up to 5,382,000 euros. However, Minister Salvini speaks of revolution and of a system that will be simpler and faster. I would like to understand how it will be possible – concludes Genovesi – to enforce the safety plan on a construction site with 7 different site managers and workers who don’t even know each other. I would like to understand how mafia infiltrations are limited. How to avoid dumping. How to prevent recycling.