Il Sole della Confindustria thunders Count on public works
Facts, numbers and tensions between Conte and Il Sole 24 Ore on public works
Conte must have misread the numbers, although elaborated with attention, because, by making a shit out of everything, he confused calls for tenders, contracts and construction sites.
This is what Il Sole 24 Ore wrote today, giving an account of a passage from yesterday 's speech in the Senate by the Prime Minister concerning public works.
Here is a summary of the battle between Conte and the Confindustria newspaper directed by Fabio Tamburini:
EXTRACT FROM GIUSEPPE CONTE'S SPEECH TO THE SENATE:
In this regard, I often hear the objection raised, I must tell the truth it also happened yesterday in the Chamber, according to which after a few months, the works, although considered a priority under the simplification decree, would still be blocked because the designation of the relative Commissioners. Apart from the fact that the list of commissioners is now there, but it is not. These works have never been blocked because article 2 of the simplification decree has been applied, which attributes special powers of the commissioners to the RUPs, to sole project managers. And this is testified by the fact that in 2020, think, even in this difficult economic context, contracts, especially those of Anas and Rfi, have grown. We have reached a total of 43.3 billion compared to 39.4 in 2019.
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EXTRACT FROM THE TODAY'S ARTICLE OF THE SUN 24 HOURS
The prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, must have read the procurement numbers published in the Sole 24 Ore early in the morning or the press release from the Minister of Infrastructure, Paola De Micheli, who gave them a rather unilateral reading by linking calls for tenders and economic growth. The fact is that Conte decided to insert an incident dedicated to public works and construction sites in his speech. But he must have misread the numbers, even though they were carefully elaborated, because, by making a mess of everything, he confused calls for tenders, tenders and construction sites. The most mischievous suggest that it is a deliberate mistake, in the tense air of the Senate, to give his government more merit than it has.
But let's see Conte's words. «I often hear the objection raised, it also happened yesterday in the Chamber, according to which after a few months, the works, even if considered a priority under the simplification decree, would still be blocked because there would be no designation of the relevant Commissioners. Apart from the fact that the list of commissioners is now there, but it is not. These works have never been blocked because Article 2 of the Simplification Decree has been applied, which attributes special powers of the commissioners to the Rup, to the sole project managers. And this is testified by the fact that in 2020, think, even in this difficult economic context, tenders, especially by Anas and Rfi, have grown. We have reached a total of 43.3 billion compared to 39.4 in 2019 ».
Let's forget that the Rup is solely responsible for the procedure, Conte's most serious mistake is to have attributed the growth we are talking about, from 39.4 to 43.3 billion to tenders, which are signed contracts, while those numbers refer the calls for tender, as Minister De Micheli had also said. The premier is aware that in Italy a tender can take two years to become a "contract" and more to become a construction site. It is true that the Simplification Decree should drastically reduce these times to 60 days, but it is not mandatory for contracting authorities to adhere to this standard and monitoring on this point is not yet possible.
Conte finally talks about the commissioners. That the list is ready is news but this list has not yet been seen by anyone, not even the Parliament which is discussing only the list of works to be commissioned. On the other hand, there is a strong acceleration of the Italian railway network (FS group) after the registration – it took two years – of the program contract last October.
Conte's sentence and De Micheli's statement aroused the reaction of the Ance. "One element is incontrovertible – says a note – in all the myriad of speeches and numbers of recent weeks: despite all the reforms adopted and the resources announced, the construction sites do not open, as evidenced by the number of hours worked in the first nine months of 2020 strongly down (-16.8%). It is enough to see – continues Ance – what is happening with Anas who, after having published, at Christmas, calls for hundreds of millions of jobs, has then postponed, in recent days, the opening of the competitions to a later date. The announcement is therefore a red herring. The works are still blocked ». And again: «The Government monitored the provision of art. 8 of the Simplification Decree which provides for the obligation to award and deliver all tenders by December 2020, with ordinary procedures contracted before Covid? What happened to these billions capable of giving a real acceleration to employment and economic recovery? ”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/il-sole-della-confindustria-folgora-conte-sulle-opere-pubbliche/ on Wed, 20 Jan 2021 10:54:52 +0000.