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Court of Auditors on Consip: savings only in theory, more checks are needed

1 year ago babelfish

Court of Auditors on Consip: savings only in theory, more checks are needed

What emerges from the report of the Court of Auditors on the 2021 financial statements of Consip, the state-owned company which is the central purchasing body of the Public Administration

Consip must improve controls on economic operators admitted to the Mepa and Sdapa digital tools for purchases in the PA. This is what emerges from the annual report of the Court of Auditors on the budget, for the year 2021, of the state-owned company Consip. Furthermore, the central purchasing body of the PA has also seen an increase in the number of judicial disputes that have seen it involved.

WHAT IS CONSIP

Consip is a spa of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), established in 1997 and operates exclusively for the public administration. Consip is the central purchasing body of the PA, it deals with the management of public resources and provides the administrations with the tools and skills they need to work, in compliance with the criteria of economy and transparency. All PA purchases pass through Consip , from stationery to expert advice. Consip is active in three main areas:

  1. the program for the rationalization of public administration purchases, which offers administrations e-procurement tools for managing their purchases: conventions, framework agreements, electronic market, dynamic purchasing system, tenders by proxy and ASP ( Application service provider ) ;
  2. the procurement of specific "project-tenders", for individual administrations and for all administrations on initiatives to support the implementation of the Italian Digital Agenda;
  3. the development of specific projects in terms of spending review, process rationalization and innovation in the public administration.

THE CHANGED ROLE OF CONSIP: FROM MANAGER TO REGULATOR OF TENDER

In the Consip management report in 2021, the Court of Auditors found that the greater use of digital tools such as MePa (Electronic Market of the Public Administration, the virtual place for online purchases of the PA , where private companies publish their offers) and Sdapa ( Dynamic Acquisition System of the Public Administration , the platform used to negotiate tenders autonomously) has changed the role of Consip: from a manager it has become a regulator of tenders. The accounting judges noted, in 2021, "a respective growth of 38 and 20% in the use of the instrument of the framework agreement and the conventions". In particular, the MePa showed an increase of 16% which "compensates for the 18% drop recorded for the Sdapa".

SAVINGS? IN THEORY BUT NOT IN PRACTICE

“This trend – states the Court's report – with the growing trend (+57%) of disbursed by ASP tenders, records, on the one hand, an overall value of expenditure disbursed through all instruments, exceeding 17 billion euros (+13% on 2020) and, on the other hand, potential savings in 2021 equal to 2,497 million euros (+7%)". The savings, however, appear to be only potential because in fact it is not "corresponding to savings ascertained in the final balance on the budget items of the individual administrations". The Mepa, the judges noted, has the only role " to make available to the contracting authorities a telematic platform which allows for the use of acquisition tools which do not require the opening of a competitive comparison (so-called catalog purchase) or which imply the 'opening of a competitive comparison (so-called offer request)". The enormity of the products and services offered on Mepa does not allow Consip to implement " ex ante control or surveillance systems of the data entered in the catalogues, which allow for the exclusion of fraudulent conduct".

THE COURT OF AUDITORS ASKS CONSIP TO IMPROVE CONTROLS

Therefore, it is the task of the individual contracting authorities to carry out all the checks required by law following the identification of the best bidder . The monitoring activities of the economic operators authorized or admitted to Mepa and Sdapa concerned the following issues:

  • violations of the SEPA rules implemented by economic operators during the execution of the contract;
  • existence and permanence, in the hands of authorized or admitted suppliers, of the special requirements envisaged in the various tenders or by the specific reference legislation;
  • existence and permanence, for economic operators authorized or admitted to the Mepa or Sdapa, of the general requirements
  • verification of the hypotheses of false information in the declarations made by the economic operators at the time of authorization or admission or renewal of data, referring to all the cases subject to self-certification.

There were 260 checks, of which around 120 ascertainment proceedings on the violation of the rules and documents of the electronic market, and 140 verifications of the possession and permanence of the subjective requisites of a general nature . The accounting judges believe that "an improvement in the use of the system by public procurement managers" is necessary, together with a "simplification and implementation of the access procedures which limit the possibility of illegal use of the platform and seek to exploit better savings potential.

THE DECLINE IN PROFIT IN 2021

In 2021 Consip's economic management recorded "a profit of 3,226,328 euros, down by 29.70% on the 4,589,253 of 2020, due to the worsening of the balance of operating management , with a decrease in revenues less than that of costs". The financial flow of income management rose to "17.97 million euros" while in 2020 it "marked 11.37 million". Finally “net of investing and financing activities, both of a negative sign, cash and cash equivalents in 2021 amounted to 39.83 million, up by 11.68 on 2020”.

THE INCREASES IN CONSIP DISPUTES

In 2021, the disputes involving Consip increased. The multiplication of "judicial events connected to tenders announced, approved or assigned by Consip , has had significant repercussions and repercussions on the same operational management of the Company", reads the report. The emergence of possible unlawful conduct relating to different tenders, " imposed on Consip the need to adopt sanctioning or inhibitory measures , which in turn are the subject of specific and further litigation in the administrative jurisdiction". Moreover, "the complex legislation on public contracts facilitates recourse to judicial action with significant repercussions both on the efficiency of administrative action". The increase in disputes " brings an element of uncertainty which is reflected in the reference market , preventing the stipulation of the contracts to which the tenders subject to judicial assessments refer", thus slowing down the action of the public administrations.

The tenders involved in the dispute were:

  • Tender for the assignment of integrated managerial and operational services , to be performed in the buildings, mainly used for office use, used by public administrations, public university institutions and research institutes and bodies (FM4).
  • School cleaning agreements (ID 1201).
  • Emergency negotiated procedure, in 18 lots, for the assignment of framework agreements for the supply of personal protective equipment and electro-medical equipment , devices and related services intended for the Covid-19 health emergency (ID 2282). (Consip has launched the "emergency negotiated procedure, in 18 lots, for the assignment of framework agreements for the supply of personal protective equipment and electro-medical equipment, devices and related services intended for the Covid-19 health emergency". From checks, an undeclared tax irregularity emerged which led Consip to cancel the award on 19 March 2020. The matter also had a criminal implication which saw the legal representative of the successful tenderer being sentenced in the first and second instance for the crime of bid rigging. However, the Court of Cassation annulled these rulings without referral, deeming that the fact did not exist).
  • IGRUE Convention for the assignment of support services and technical assistance for the exercise and development of the surveillance and audit function of programs co-financed by the European Union (ADA) (ID 1592)
  • Tender for the supply of electricity and related services for public administrations EE12
  • Agreements for the supply of canteen replacement services through paper meal vouchers of any nominal value and related services in favor of public administrations (ed. 7) BP7 (ID 1488)

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/corte-dei-conti-su-consip-risparmi-solo-in-teoria-servono-piu-controlli/ on Fri, 24 Feb 2023 08:06:35 +0000.