Italy

IV. Italian ongoing activities and future commitments

Environment

“The Ministry for Ecological Transition is in charge for monitoring implementation of legislative decrees enforcing the ‘Circular Economy Package’ and preparation of corrective decrees; National Action Plan for the environmental sustainability of consumption in the Public Administration will be defined to maximize green public procurement (…)” (p. 35)

“In relation to environmental sustainability in the Public Administration, a first step in this direction was the “Guide for the integration of social aspects in public procurement”, adopted by the aforementioned Ministry by Ministerial Decree of June 6, 2012, as part of the National Action Plan on Green Public Procurement (PANGPP)

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The Guide aims to provide operational guidance on how to take social aspects into account in the definition of public tenders relating to supply, service and works contracts. It considers experiences of integrating social criteria in public procurement developed by different EU countries.” (p. 37)

“In addition, Legislative Decree No. 50 of 19 April 2016 in transposing EU Directives 23, 24 and 25/2014, outlines a regulatory framework for social and environmental responsibility in the management of public procurement, including the possibility of introducing criteria relating also to human rights within the contract life cycle (definition of the subject of the contract, criteria for selection of candidates, technical specifications, award criteria and contract performance clauses). The EU Commission has recently published a second edition of the guide for socially sustainable procurement (“Buying Social – A guide to taking account of social considerations in public procurement” – Second edition (2021/C 237/01)), referred to in the previous NAP BHR. It has provided indications to identify a set of clauses that will be included by ANAC in the Standard Notice for e-procurement.

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To this scope a full life-cycle monitoring through the National Database of Public Contracts, managed by ANAC, will be facilitated by the adoption of the new models covered by Regulation (EU) 1780 of 2019, which will be fully operational in October 2023. In collaboration with other administrations concerned for adoption of models and adaptation to national requirements, ANAC will give right emphasis identification processes over social and environmental sustainability clauses in calls for tenders and compliance with them throughout the life cycle of the contract (…)” (p. 38)

Public procurement

“Italy fully adheres to the principle of socially responsible procurement and is committed to ensuring that respect for human rights is taken into account at all procurement stages.

Legislative Decree No. 50/2016 (Public Contracts Code) has transposed 2014 EU Directives in force in this field: basic principles are aimed at guaranteeing access to and the conduct of decent work, respect for social and labour rights, as far as SMEs’ participation in public contracts.

In the framework of the BHR NAP 2016-2021, in the field of public procurement ANAC has provided operational guidance to administrations to introduce social and environmental criteria in contractual activities of public administrations through the Guidelines on the Economically Most Advantageous Offer (Guidelines 2 of 2 May 2018 https://www.anticorruzione.it/-/linee-guida-n.-2). In the framework of the PNRR, the role of the Public Contracts Database and the Single Transparency Platform managed by ANAC is set to gain importance also to facilitating the involvement of civil society in the control on legality and life cycle approach in public procurement through available digital tools.

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport publishes on its website calls for tenders for public infrastructure contracts, as well as the notice of award. In line with Global Standard of Contracting 5 (C5) and other supranational best practices, “Opencantieri” project has been set up: it is an online platform that includes open, complete and updated information on public infrastructure processes.

Contracts related to infrastructure development owe their standards of integrity and transparency also to Consip, the national Central Purchasing Body (CPB) at the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF). Its mission is to make the use of public resources more efficient and transparent, while at the same time providing tools and expertise to public administrations and strengthening competition among businesses. Consip has granted a greater and easier access to data and information on its activities, providing useful tools to clearly understand and correctly interpret data, as well as a geo-referencing system that, using interactive maps, allows to consult data on purchases. In order to make the sharing of data and information understandable and systematic, Consip published its second Sustainability Report, with the aim of describing its mandate and contribution to the national public procurement system. In order to ensure a clear and complete accounting of its actions, the Report was drafted according to GRI standards. It describes Consip’s operations and performance in terms of environmental, economic and social sustainability, noting how this approach has contributed to the achievement of some SDGs.

The raising of standards of integrity and transparency in the development of infrastructures is also guaranteed through the dissemination of Legality Protocols: these are voluntary agreements between the Prefecture or other Public Security Authorities and public or private companies involved in the management of public works, which have proved particularly useful in combating criminal infiltration. The role of such protocols has recently been strengthened through regulatory interventions (Decree Law No. 76/2020 converted into Law No. 120/2020, added to Legislative Decree No. 159/2011 – Antimafia Code – Art. 83-bis on the subject of “legality protocols”), which give contracting stations the possibility to assess in notices, calls for tenders or letters of invitation that failure to comply with the legality protocols as a cause for exclusion from the tender or termination of the contract.

In order to raise the level of transparency and encourage virtuous mechanisms of larger control over public procurement by citizens and civil society, the ANAC has made available through an Open Data portal all information contained in the National Database of Public Contracts. These data concern both tender procedures and execution of contracts. In addition, ANAC has made available on its website a platform for the processing of these data by citizens and users.

In addition, ANAC is working with other stakeholders in the project “Measuring the risk of corruption at territorial level and promoting transparency” (funded by the National Operational Programme Governance and Institutional Capacity 2014-2020 – ERDF, ASSE 3 – Specific Objective 3.1 Action 3.1.4), to identify quantitative indicators of the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures implemented by the administrations (so-called contrast indicators). The project also intends to create inter-institutional collaboration networks to guarantee transparency in every sector of the Public Administration. The intent is to raise awareness of the private sector, academia and civil society on the need to overcome the current approach, based on exclusively subjective corruption indicators, and to promote a further approach to measuring corruption, based on reliable data in line with the principle of “leading by example”. As suggested by the OECD “investing in improving data quality to enhance risk assessments can provide a context for organizations to address broader issues along the value chain, improving the use of data within decision-making processes” (OECD, 2019).” (p.48)