Presentation  Presentation  

Summary

Link: Networks e Synergies

Social Development Networks

Chapter 1

Housing quality

Chapter 2

The centre and the suburbs: different systems of mobility

Chapter 3

The family and solidarity

Chapter 4

Quality of education network

Chapter 5

Living the employment network

Economic Networks

Chapter 6

Links within the economic system

Chapter 7

The trade network

Chapter 8

Veneto agriculture network

Chapter 9

Mountain synergies

Chapter 10

Production networks

Chapter 11

The distribution network

Chapter 12

Tourism: synergy between sectors and networks between individuals

Institutional services and
networks

Chapter 13

The network for workplace health prevention

Chapter 14

The Veneto model for the integration of social and healthcare services

Chapter 15

Public Administration: services for citizens and businesses

Chapter 16

Telematic networks in Veneto

Chapter 17

The environmental and territorial checking networks

Chapter 18

Cross-border institutional networks

Chapter 19

Inter-institutional local models




15.1 - Processes underway in the Public Administration - Processes underway in the Public Administration

Reforms within Italy's Public Administration (PA) since the 1990s have transformed its structure and organisation, enabling it to become increasingly functional. The transformation of the role of local authorities, the introduction of principles such as subsidiariety, simplification, administrative transparency, privatisation of public work, as well as IT, are all features that have turned what was once an extremely bureaucratic organisation into a network that links administrations, people and network nodes, and thus simplifies operations and procedures.
In recent years, these processes have been given a boost. Nowadays the PA needs to compete with a political governance that functions according to a multilevel logic (see Chapter 18 of this Report); the EU is pushing towards this and therefore it is widespread within the institutional logic of a range of Member States. Consequently, it has become essential for a PA to be able to provide accountability, especially towards those who use its services; it also needs to be accountable to other levels of government that provide funding, such as the EU. An increasingly results-oriented policy has led Italy's PA to redesign itself, casting off its old hierarchical model and fostering an organisation that is more mindful of its relations with citizens, its users and customers, who are now part of public-resource management and more informed as to how this occurs.
The decentralisation of services to bodies that are closer to citizens is a milestone in the institutional changes of the last decades. Alongside this, it gradually became clear that local authorities would need financial autonomy to carry out these decentralised services, and so subsidiariety and financial autonomy were introduced into the Italian Constitution (Art. 18 and Art. 19 respectively of Constitutional Law no. 3/2001), the latter being implemented with final approval of the law on fiscal federalism enacted under delegated power (Law no. 42 of 5 May 2009). This law introduces a major reorganisation and reform of Italy's financial structure in that it not only brings the PA nearer to citizens, but also seeks to create a more efficient service that will eliminate waste by placing more fiscal autonomy in the hands of the regions; as a result regions will rebalance financial conditions by making the most appropriate choices for individual areas, and also reinforce transparency and responsibility.
Theory and empirical results confirm the positive impact of decentralisation on the economic performance of a country and its regions. Regional autonomy, especially decision-making, promotes the efficiency and effectiveness of State action, in that wherever institutions are in closer contact with people and business, it is easier to find out their needs and keep tighter control over spending. When there are a wide range of needs throughout a country, needs that vary from region to region, a single national policy is not able to intervene effectively to meet the bespoke needs of each one.
One of the studies that confirms the above was carried out by Bakbasel, a Swiss economics think-tank, which was commissioned by the Assembly of European Regions in May 2009. The use of a great deal of information enabled the level of decentralisation to be measured in a range of countries; the results were then used to assess the effect on the level of well-being, which was measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. The result is that decentralisation has a positive impact and so, conditions being equal, the countries with a higher level of decentralisation are the ones with the highest GDP and growth over time; this is particularly true where there are higher levels of financial autonomy and decision-making in individual regions. See the positive correlation between GDP per capita and the decentralisation index. In Italy, this information is a good sign considering the current economic crisis. Indeed, Italy is in sixth place in the rankings of European countries by level of decentralisation (Figure 15.1.1) and (Figure 15.1.2).

Top  Human capital in the PA

In order to ensure efficient management of the scarce resources available, especially in a moment as delicate and difficult as today, so that they can be invested in the sectors and sections of the population who need them most, it is essential that Public Administrations employ human capital, especially management, that is capable and responsible; a move in this direction was made in recent national Legislative Decree DL 150/2009, which envisages the optimisation of productivity in State employees and of the efficiency and transparency of Public Administrations themselves. Although official statistics have not yet provided homogeneous and comparative indicators on these aspects, it is already possible to see that as the services have evolved, i.e. become more rationalized; over the last few years, new legislation has triggered a fall in the number of PA employees, which suggests that the PA itself has become more productive and efficient. Italy can now boast more articulate and improved services, which have been made more functional by the drop in human resources. Depsite this general trend, however, there are major differences between Italy's regions, particularly between the North and the South; Veneto and Lombardia lead the North in terms of efficiency.
A brief overview of the PA structure (Note 1), its spending, and the level of interaction with citizens and business provides an insight into the state of health of this important production sector. In 2008, 1,404,664 employees worked in Italy's peripheral administrations, while 1,970,667 worked in its central ones. The two regions with the highest number of public sector employees are Lombardia and Lazio: the former has the highest population in Italy, while the latter is home to the seat of national government, and thus to its entire Public Administration, so it is the country's linchpin in this sector. The two regions together account for 24.5% of the total number of public sector employees. Veneto comprises 6.9% of PA employees, a similar amount to that of Piemonte and Emilia Romagna.
For a further insight into figures at a local level, we need to relativise the absolute values by looking at them in ratio to the local population, which will provide a rough indicator as to the number of PA employees at the service of local citizens. At national level, there are 5.6 PA employees per 100 residents. The regions of the Centre North have a high number of PA employees in absolute terms; Lombardia has to deal with a very high population and it has 4.3 employees every 100 residents, but this is a low figure when compared to Lazio and Trentino, both of which have 7.2. In 2008, Veneto confirmed the economy of its organisational policy in terms of human resources with 4.8 PA employees per 100 residents, a figure that is higher only than Lombardia in Italy's Centre North regions. This indicator has fallen slightly, on both a national and a regional scale when compared to 2001 (-0.1 PA employees per 100 residents in both cases); this fall is due to the changes within the PA, which are geared towards reducing costs and improving efficiency, as well as to policies in recent years, which are often conditioned by unfavourable economic situations (Figure 15.1.3).
At national level, there are slightly more central PA employees than peripheral PA employees, 3.3 and 2.3 respectively. The regions reflect this division fairly evenly, with only Lazio standing out because it is the seat of government and the entire central PA (5.1 employees per 100 residents in the central PA and 2.1 in the peripheral PA). Veneto also has a slightly higher number of central PA employees with 2.7 employees per 100 residents compared to 2.1 employees in its peripheral PA. The exception is Trentino, which has five times the number of employees in the peripheral PA than in the central PA. This is explained by the fact that that Trentino has its own special statute and therefore there is greater decentralisation of administrative services than in regions with an ordinary statute (Figure 15.1.4).

Top  PA spending

The ratio between PA spending (Note 2) and regional GDP illustrates that Veneto is Italy's most virtuous region. In 2007, the public sector in Veneto spent 34.9% of its regional GDP, whereas the national average is around 46.5%. Calabria spends a record amount with 66.7%. Although Italy has a rather high level with 46.5%, one aggravated by the interest on its high public debt, at a local level, Veneto seems to manage to keep these costs down. One positive sign is that since 2000, there has been a fall in public spending as a percentage of GDP both at national and regional level: 1.7 percentage points less for Italy and 1 percentage point for Veneto (Figure 15.1.5).
Spending on personnel and the purchase of goods and services by the Public Administration are the items most subjected to the restrictions within the internal stability pact, which started with the Maastricht Treaty and place major spending restraints on local authorities. These items accounted for 36.3% of Veneto's entire current spending in 2007 (16.6% was spent on personnel, 19.7% on the purchase of goods and services) and regard all sectors of the PA. Spending on personnel is heaviest in education and health. More than half of the spending on goods and services was accounted for by the health sector.
Veneto's Public Administration, which spent 11.2% of its GDP on "personnel" and "goods and services", purchased as input towards the production process, was in second-to-last place, just ahead of Lombardia, in 2007 (Figure 15.1.6).
As opposed to overall spending as a percentage of GDP, Italy's spending on personnel and the purchase of goods and services actually rose slightly between 2000 and 2007, from 14.6% to 14.8%. Although the indicator for Veneto was lower than in the rest of Italy, it did increase a little more sharply: it rose from 10.4% to 11.2%. If we separate spending on personnel from spending on goods and services, we notice that the latter item had the biggest effect on overall growth: up 0.4 percentage points in Italy and up 0.9 percentage points in Veneto. On the other hand, spending on personnel actually fell slightly, both in Italy and in Veneto (down 0.2 and 0.1 percentage points respectively).
On a positive note, the recent situation in Veneto shows that spending on "personnel" and "the purchase of goods and services" as a percentage of GDP in 2007 fell when compared to the figure for 2006 when spending was 11.8% (Figure 15.1.7).

Top  Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the PA

Efficiency within the PA is definitely on the up thanks to the spread of technology and to online services.
Information Technology requires solid organisation within the PA. This entails an increasingly widespread need for autonomous departments within the PA to manage ICT. In 2007, 16% of Italy's municipalities were equipped with autonomous IT services or offices, a figure that was due to a rather mixed situation throughout the country. Toscana is the region with the highest concentration of municipalities with autonomous IT units with 38.4%, while Veneto is in sixth place with 20.8%. We should also remember that equipping offices with IT equipment is an expense that not all local authorities can afford, and is therefore a luxury enjoyed only by larger administrations. By cross-sectioning data with population figures, we notice that 93% of Italian municipalities with more than 60,000 residents are equipped with an autonomous IT infrastructure compared with 6% of municipalities with fewer than 5,000 residents (Figure 15.1.8).
Internet coverage is fairly widespread in almost all of Italy's municipalities: 99.9% are connected to the network and of these 58.9% are equipped with a broadband connection. In this case too, there are significant differences between Italy's regions: Emilia Romagna is the most hi-tech with 100% of its municipalities connected to the internet and of these 87.2% have a broadband connection.
Veneto also has all of its municipalities connected to the Internet, and 69.3% of these have a broadband connection, a figure that places the region in seventh place in the national rankings (Figure 15.1.9).
If Internet coverage is an indication of the potential of a municipality to connect itself with the outside world by using Information Technology, an institutional website is a statement of its ability to present itself to the world by providing information about its activity and by supplying online services to businesses and families. In 78.2% of cases, Italian municipalities have their own website. Percentages are fairly high in all regions. A peak is reached in the autonomous province of Bolzano and in Basilicata, which both have 100%, whereas the minimum is in the autonomous province of Trento, which stands at 61%. Veneto is in sixth place with 91.1%. A website alone, however, is not enough to comprehend the level of interactive services Public Administrations offer their users. Although the majority of PAs use their websites to provide information services, only a minor part are able to provide a complete service, from start to finish. For instance, only 9.4% of Italian municipalities provide a service that enables citizens and businesses to pay online. Once again, Emilia Romagna is the leading region with around 19%. Veneto comes second with 14.5% (Figure 15.1.10) and (Figure 15.1.11).

Top  Online interaction between businesses, families and the PA

A network is made up of a series of interacting units. On the one hand are the online services the PA offers to citizens and businesses, on the other is the ability of citizens and businesses to interact with these tools.
In Italy in 2009, 38.8% of Internet users went online to garner information from PA institutional websites (Note 3), a percentage that falls to 29.6% and 14.2% respectively for users who download forms and send them online. At a regional level, Sardegna stands out with its 45.6% of Internet users who go online for information, as do the regions of the North, all of which stand at around 40%, and Lazio. In Veneto, 39.7% of Internet users went onto PA websites, a figure higher than the national average. Figures, however, slip a little if we look at Internet users who interact more completely, i.e. downloading and sending completed forms online; indeed the respective percentages drop to 28.1% and 13.1%, lower than the national average in both cases (Figure 15.1.12).
Businesses use the internet to access the services on PA websites more than private citizens. In 2008, 81% of businesses with more than 10 employees used these services, while 74.6% connected to PA websites to find out information, use online services, e.g. download and send forms, as well as carry out admin procedures, present tender bids, or for other activities. The different geographical areas of Italy show some differences, although they are not too far apart. In the North-West, 84.4% of businesses use the PA's online services, 76.4% in the Centre, and 82% in the North-East. Similar to the national situation, use of online services tends to fall in all areas as the level of interactivity increases. Of the 84.4% of businesses that use PA websites in the North-West, 78.4% also use them for matters other than information purposes. Likewise, percentages fall to 69.9% in the Centre and to 75.9% in the North-East. These figures suggest that although IT is widespread and the majority of people and businesses know they are available, there is still some resistance to using them for certain procedures, such as administration, which is traditionally done face-to-face (Figure 15.1.13).
This idea also seems to be true of other countries in the European Union. In 2008, Italy was in ninth place among EU27 countries for businesses that use the Internet to access the services on PA websites. However, although Italy's figures are above the EU average, the situation changes when dealing with other interactive content. There is a fall in the percentage of businesses that use PA websites as the level of service interaction increases; this happens in almost all EU countries, but is particularly marked in Italy. Although 74.1% of Italian businesses (Note 4) connect to PA websites for information only, compared to 61.4% in EU27, only 41.7% of Italian businesses use the same sites to send completed forms (i.e. to complete admin procedures) compared to 50.5% in EU27. This is confirmation that a culture of using ICT to access the PA is still not as widespread as it could be, or that when there is this culture, the technologies are not deemed to be reliable enough to carry out certain activities. To conclude, it should be pointed out that although these technologies are in place, sometimes they are only able to provide a partial service. As regards e-government and citizens, Italy is generally behind the rest of the EU, suggesting that online relations between citizens and the PA are somewhat strained; in Italy in 2008, 44.5% (Note 5) of Internet users also accessed the PA's online services, while the European average is over 53% (Table 15.1.1).
An example of ICT services: a network for immigrants
(Note 6) Regarding the issue of immigrant integration within the region, Regione Veneto has struck a local alliance to establish a range of services geared towards enabling non-EU citizens to integrate into social and working life in Veneto. These projects envisage collaboration among a number of public and private subjects, including the PA, especially local authorities, schools, production and employment organisations, volunteer associations and the representatives of immigrant communities. Coordination among the different players involved in the integration process is fostered by the establishment of an innovative local information network: Rete Informativa Immigrazione is a multimedia database containing all of the information on immigration services, projects and courses for non-EU citizens offered by local authorities, third-sector associations, immigrant associations, as well as employers' associations and trade unions.
Figures for people using this service are encouraging: at the start of December 2009, the website had been accessed almost 5 million times by more than 160,000 people. The network covers all of Veneto's provinces and information is divided into categories: accommodation, language, work, language and cultural mediation, social/school integration and associations (Note 7).

Top  Citizen satisfaction with PA services

Veneto citizens have a favourable opinion on the quality of several basic services, e.g. accessibility to registry, post and health-service (ASL) offices; in 2008, almost 75% of families declared that they did not have any difficulty reaching a post office and more than 70% had no problem reaching municipal offices. Both percentages are higher than national averages, which stand at 71.3% and 63% respectively (Figure 15.1.14).
The same applies for opinions on the opening hours of municipal, post and ASL offices. In all cases, more than 60% of Veneto residents gave positive opinions (somewhat or very convenient), which peaked at 72% for post offices. Here, too, Veneto's PA achieves higher-than-national-average results (Figure 15.1.15).

Figure 15.1.1
Ratio between the decentralisation index and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in Purchasing Power Standards (EU27=100) by country
Figure 15.1.2
Decentralisation index by country
Figure 15.1.3
Public Administration employees per 100 residents. Veneto and Italy - Years 2001 and 2008
Figure 15.1.4
Public Administration employees per 100 residents by government level and by region. Year 2008
Figure 15.1.5
Total consolidated spending by the Public Administration as a percentage share of GDP by region - Year 2007
Figure 15.1.6
Spending on the purchase of goods and services and on personnel: percentage share of GDP - Year 2007
Figure 15.1.7
PA spending: difference in spending on the purchase of goods and services and on personnel as a percentage share of GDP - Years 2000 and 2007
Figure 15.1.8
Percentage of municipalities that provide autonomous online services/offices by region - Year 2007
Figure 15.1.9
Percentage of municipalities with a broadband connection out of total municipalities with Internet by region - Year 2007
Figure 15.1.10
Percentage of municipalities with an institutional website by region - Year 2007
Figure 15.1.11
Percentage of municipalities that allow citizens and businesses to make payments online by region - Year 2007
Figure 15.1.12
Percentage of people aged 14 and over that used Internet in the previous 12 months to access public services and/or the Public Administration by purpose.  Veneto and Italy - Year 2009
Figure 15.1.13
Percentage of businesses with at least 10 employees by type of online public service and by geographical area.  Year 2008
Table 15.1.1
Percentage of businesses that used Internet in the previous year by type of PA online service. Year 2008
Figure 15.1.14
Difficulty citizens have reaching post or municipal offices.  Veneto and Italy - Year 2008
Figure 15.1.15
Opinion on the convenience of public-office opening hours: percentage of people aged 14 and over who deem the opening hours to be somewhat or very convenient by type of service.  Veneto and Italy - Year 2008


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English translation by the University of Padova Language Centre.