Pnrr, the government collects confidence in the decree that contains the stop to the concomitant controls of the Court of Auditors – Corriere.it

The government led by Giorgia Meloni has gained confidence in the decree on public administration, with the amendments limiting the controls of the Court of Auditors on expenditure for the Pnrr.

The votes in favor were 203; 134 the opposites; 3 abstainers.

After examining the agendas and the final vote, the text will pass to the examination of the Senate to be converted into law, under penalty of forfeiture, by 21 June.

«You have used this decree as a Trojan horse to gag those who call you to your responsibilities. The Pnrr is a common good of this country, ”said the deputy vice president of the Democratic Party group in the Chamber, Simona Bonafé. This decree «helped you to eliminate the concurrent control of the Court of Auditors on the Pnrr. That is, the most useful one, because it allows for problems to be identified and helps to guarantee transparency», underlined the exponent of the 5-star Movement, Dario Carotenuto. «On April 22, 2021, the center-right proposed a bill to strengthen the concurrent control of the magistrates of the Court of Auditors on the Pnrr. Today, since they don’t know how to manage the Pnrr, they dismantle it. “How to change, so as not to die”», comments the group leader of the Five Star Movement in the Senate, Stefano Patuanelli, on Twitter.

As explained by Gianluca Mercuri here,

“the concurrent controls they would have allowed the Court of Accounts Of check along the wayi.e. in progress, the way Pnrr money is spent. Introduced by law in 2009, they remained on paper for over a decade, until the Conte 2 government made them operational in July 2020. It was, as explained by the President of the Court of Auditors Guido Carlino, a “compensation” compared to the limitations on liability for gross negligence introduced at the same time, with the justification of the pandemic.

In November 2021, the Court of Auditors established the Board of Concomitant Control to scrutinize the management of Pnrr funds. Since then, it has published 48 resolutions, discovering, for example, the failure to plant 1.7 million trees by the end of 2022 (only seeds had been planted in some cities) and “serious management irregularities” in the project for 40 petrol stations based on of hydrogen. At the end of May, the Court reported all the delays in the Pnrr, prompting a reaction from Minister Fitto.

L’executive believes that the concurrent controls hinder the already complicated grounding of the countless projects that make up the Pnrr. The decision to suspend them was applauded by Sabino Cassese, historic signature of the Corriere and top Italian expert in administrative law. Also for the former president of the Constitutional Court Cesare Mirabelli «concomitant control means participation in the administrative activity. And it becomes a co-management». The Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, for her part, underlines that the extension of the tax shield had already been decided by the Draghi government.

However, the accounting magistrates yesterday reiterated “the clear opposition” to both the elimination of the concomitant control and the extension of the tax shield. And they announce “every useful initiative to combine speed and legality of administrative action in compliance with national rules and European constraints”. Among the hypotheses, that of raise the question of legitimacy in the Constitutional Court and also that of proposing a conflict between state powers.

For the Democratic Party, the management of the Pnrr and the move on controls are “the test of the government’s failure”. For the 5 Stars, “the Meloni government is impatient with the controls”. Carlo Calenda, on the other hand, takes the side of the executive: «The government has done well. Building checks on checks to then paralyze the public administration is one of the many Italian evils».

Article being updated…

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