In Italy, while corruption spreads, public administrations are still stuck on the issue of transparency. And it is not a contrast of phenomena, the two are closely linked and interdependent indeed, as demonstrated by the data contained in the Report on the transparency in government Presented in Rome on December 18, 2012 by Cittadinanzattiva and Fondazione Etica.
The Report is the output of the homonymous project.
A few examples: citizens who turn to our consulting services, information protection Pit Servizi di Cittadinanzattiva, in one case out of four report cases of lack of transparency in public services and, among these, a third directly affects the opacity of the public administration. Unclear administrative, not enough detailed payments requests for the common user, waiting lists in public services (from nursery to health services) that give a glimpse of illegal or abuse or, at least, they seem to be made to confuse citizen.
It is not a coincidence that all the instruments required by law Brunetta 2009 to promote transparency in government are now largely unapplied: in 2012 only three Ministries (Health, Foreign Affairs, Environment) out of 13 and 6 national public entities out of 74 have made the Days of Transparency; Ministries published on their web sites only partial or outdated information and above all they are very poor on information and data relating to the management of public services, which must have been intended by the reform of 2009, the first area in which promote the social control of public action.
Not good for Regions: in the Report are presented the results of the Public Ethincs Rating (R.E.P.), sponsored by Fondazione Etica: a real quality rating of P.A., which is not only limited to financial information, but also to qualitative measure such as governance, relations with citizens, fairness with suppliers. Toscana is the region with the best rating, followed by Veneto and Lombardia. Weighted the data with the resident population, however, Lombardia becomes the region with the highest rating, because it serves a bigger audience. But this is again a race to the bottom: Toscana, first in the ranking, stands on a score of 35/100, Veneto region of 27/100 and Lombardia of 26/100.
In general, the average score of regions is of 16, a really very low value: above the average, in this sort of race to the bottom on transparency, there are Toscana, Veneto, Lombardia, Puglia, Marche, Liguria, Abruzzo, Piemonte; average Molise, Campania and Emilia Romagna; below the average Friuli Venezia Giulia, Basilicata, Sicilia, Umbria, Calabria, Valle D’Aosta, Lazio, Sardegna and at least Trentino Alto Adige.
As citizens we should take more consciousness: if the government we turn to does not really hear out needs maybe we should be suspicious and investigate to learn more about the services it provides. It is enough to remember how corruption and lack of transparency in the public administrations are now weighing on our citizens’ pockets and on the businesses and it is impoverishing the Welfare of our country. From €25 billion less in health, 8 billion in the last three years removed from public school, the loss last year of a value of foreign investments in our country 48% (such as due to the decline of Italy from 69° to 72° place in the international ranking on corruption compiled by Transparency), a growth on average 25% lower for those companies that are faced with a corrupt government, as indicated by a recent world Bank study.
By Aurora Avenoso, Press Office Cittadinanzattiva
(Last Updated: January 25, 2013)
