He left this morning, January 9, from Perugia “Let’s make Italy simple. Word to the territories” the roadshow of the Minister for Public Administration Sen. Paolo Zangrillo, organized by the Department of Public Function of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, in collaboration with Formez Pa (Centre for services, assistance, studies and training for the modernization of PA), Sna (national school of Administration), Agid (agency for digital Italy), Invitalia and UnionCamere, for listening and comparing with local realities. A journey to share and implement the many PA reform projects that need to be implemented, through the tool of direct confrontation with the representatives of local institutions.
The Sala dei Notari in Palazzo dei Priori was packed for the occasion, with the presence, in addition to the minister, of the mayor Andrea Romizi, of the president of the Region Donatella Tesei, of the president of the province of Perugia Stefania Proietti, of the undersecretary inside Hon. Prisco, of the Prefect of Gradone, of the questore Bellassai, and of many other representatives of the civil and military institutions of the city and of the region.
***
Opening the series of greetings, Mayor Andrea Romizi thanked the minister for what he defined as an “enlightened initiative” unique in its kind. The Mayor’s appreciation went particularly to the method, i.e. to the availability with which Sen. Zangrillo chose to organize the works, leaving room for operational and direct confrontation with the many insiders. In this regard, the sense of responsibility in the face of an event that represents an opportunity not to be missed is strong: “we are living in a particular historical period, which confronts us with unprecedented projects and resources (PNRR). It is an epochal challenge that we must be able to win in order to change the face of cities and of our country after a long period of restrictions and difficulties. But to do this we will need a new way of relating to citizens and citizens in general”.
Works and reforms: these are the two channels envisaged by the pnrr with the second decisive for transforming Italy. “In this context, I would like to thank Minister Zangrillo and the public function department for having well understood what the starting point and the new approach to the topic should be, i.e. putting people, operators at the centre, recovering the centrality of their role and the awareness of its importance for the community”.
The president Stefania Proietti underlined the need to create a real restart and an effective change for the PAs. In this sense, the Pnrr represents a great opportunity to become innovative and attractive to young people. In short, the PA will have to become more and more a beacon of innovation. The president did not fail to point out the difficulties regarding the role of the provinces, faced with increasingly complex challenges especially in terms of school construction.
According to the president of the region Donatella Tesei, it is necessary to proceed with a project of simplification and growth of the PA, too often only attempted in the past but without success also due to the excessive overlapping of dated and cumbersome regulations.
On this point Tesei asked for a change of pace, believing that only clear rules free from excessive interpretations can allow us to operate at our best.
“What we are facing is a challenge that we must overcome: the PA needs new skills and gratification, with the awareness of a concept: if a public administration works well, the whole country works well”.
In order to win this challenge, according to the president, a discussion with the actors involved is necessary, primarily the local authorities, to understand their difficulties and needs and to work as a team to achieve the desired objectives. Finally, an appeal to the minister: on the pnrr many responsibilities are delegated to the Municipalities, but it is necessary to put the latter, especially the smaller ones, in a position to be able to work well, strengthening them.
After the greetings from the representatives of the local institutions, the microphone went to Minister Zangrillo who intended to explain the meaning of the initiative. “The tour – he said – represents a great commitment towards the territories and towards those who measure themselves every day in relations with citizens and businesses”. In sharing President Tesei’s concept, according to which the PA is the engine of the country, the minister said he felt a strong responsibility to make this “engine” essential for the development of the nation work, especially in a particularly difficult but surmountable period like this thanks to everyone’s contribution.
Zangrillo reported that he has no intention of proceeding with yet another reform of the public administration but simply wants to transform the excellent inherited planning into concrete facts.
Explaining the meaning of the tour for Italy, he highlighted that his idea of public administration is not restricted to central administrations, being instead above all that of the territories: “problems can only be solved by knowing them well. And this is only possible by confronting each other directly on site. That’s why they chose to tour Italy: not to tell who we are, but to listen and build together the answers necessary to overcome the critical issues”.
The minister confirmed that the PNRR represents “a high-speed train” on which Italy must get on in order to look to the future with confidence. In concrete terms, this game requires the ability to carry out things within the times required by Europe as never before in the past: this is why it is necessary to rethink the way of being and operating, starting right from the local administrations and from the Municipalities in particular.
Central themes and topics; for the minister they are: skills, responsibility (understood as awareness of the role that everyone plays in the public administration) and merit.
There are two priority objectives linked to the pnrr: simplification (it will cover over 600 procedures by 2026) and digitalisation.
***
The workshop program then continued with the “technical” reports.
Cecilia Maceli, coordinator of the tenders office of the public function department, spoke of “Innovation in access to public administrations” and in particular of the new single platform for personnel recruitment. Valerio Talamo, director of the trade union relations office, focused on the “tools for a new organization of the PA What the new collective agreements provide for”. Alfonso Migliore, coordinator of the office for organization and public work” spoke of “professional families for new skills”.
After them, the interventions of the regional councilor Paola Agabiti, of the mayor of Montecchio and coordinator of the small municipalities of Anci, Federico Gori, of Dr. Marsilio, of ing. Gentili and Dr. Clementi (Umbria region), Dr. Proietti, vice president of Its Umbria, as well as Dr. Francesca Vichi, general secretary and general manager of the Municipality of Perugia. Dr. Vichi, in recalling how the pandemic has necessarily given a strong acceleration to the issue of digitization, retraced the salient stages of the situation relating to municipal staff, highlighting how, after a period of strong contraction, now the numbers have returned to grow and the average age of employees is decreasing. This was possible thanks to a significant simplification of the recruitment procedures which made it possible to celebrate competitions in a maximum time frame of 6 months with peaks of excellence of 100 days in cases in which it was possible to resort to innovative systems (tests in digital mode, remotely, etc.). These virtuous results were the fruit of teamwork within the institution and the presence of important skills which the Municipality of Perugia is endowed with. According to Vichi, the theme of competencies is one of the crucial issues for the public administrations together with that of the timing of the procedures.
Times have changed, explained Dr., as confirmed by some previously unknown phenomena: think of the renunciations by the winners of the competitions or the many resignations to land in other Administrations. Everything is part of a phenomenon of competition within the public administrations; for this reason you have asked to initiate interventions to enhance merit in order to promote well-being and productivity within the administrations and, consequently, in favor of the community.
On the sidelines of the meeting at Notari, Minister Paolo Zangrillo was welcomed by Mayor Andrea Romizi in the Sala Rossa where he signed the pages of the illustrious guests’ book.
This is the link for the video of the day on the Youtube channel of the Municipality of Perugia: