Green light for the new Tender Law, renamed “Salvini Law” by the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport. The aim is to de-bureaucraticize public works assignment procedures and liberalize procurement so as not to lose Pnrr’s enormous resources. Salvini promised “My law will restart Italy” but not everyone thinks so.
Procurement digitization is good; redevelopment of contract stations is good; Strengthening of collaborative oversight with the National Anti-Corruption Agency (ANAC) was good; direct assignment and unpaid subcontracting are less good because rushing doesn’t always mean doing well. And here the discussion begins. Anac, who was thrown out of the control room, warns: 98% of public works will be entrusted without tender and the risk of corruption is very close. But is it really so? “The philosophy of the Meloni government is: the less restrictions are created, the more jobs are activated. The problem is, the opposite: the less restrictions are created – hence less transparency, less control, less quality – and the more public money, the more If it disperses and the workers at the construction sites have less rights,” he said. Today Giuseppe Massafra, CGIL’s confederal secretary.
New Procurement Code: main changes
First of all, let’s see what the main innovations in the Tender Law are in the field of interest of the law:
- Digitization: strengthening the use of digital platforms to simplify procedures;
- Direct allocation of jobs: the threshold rises from 40,000 euros to 150 thousand euros. For works up to 5,382 million euros, a bargaining procedure is envisaged with a number of operators (5 to 10) to be invited. In addition, for contracts up to 500 thousand euros, small contracting stations will be able to proceed directly without passing through qualified contracting stations;
- Subcontracting: Outsourcing and sequential subcontracting are allowed with no percentage limit;
- Integrated procurement: on the basis of a technical-economic feasibility project, the possibility of entrusting the administrative planning and execution of works to a single subject is envisaged;
- Mandatory price review: The obligation to include price review clauses in all bidding documents that will be triggered automatically for cost changes greater than 5% of the total amount. Compensation will cover 80% of variations evaluated against synthetic Istat indices;
- Single project manager: RUP, previously responsible for a single procedure, becomes the sole manager of the project for all phases: planning, design, assignment and execution of work. It may also be appointed from among the fixed-term employees of the contracting station or the issuing organization;
- Responsibility: there is no serious negligence for officials and managers of public institutions if they have acted according to the case law or the views of the authority. Similar protections for sensitive matters such as professional tort.
Anaç: “98 percent of public works will be transferred without a tender”
Meloni government approved the new Procurement Law, what changes have happened? Anaç warns with concern that 98 percent of the public works will be transferred without a tender from now on. However, with the same data from the 2021 Anti-Corruption (in terms of their economic value, not the number of procedures), there are those who calculate that this is ‘only’ 18.9 billion euros per year compared to 43.4 billion euros. all public expenditure in the construction sector (approximately 44%). If we just consider the 40,000 to 150,000 euro range, we’re talking about 3 billion euros per year, just under 8% of the total.
“For under 150,000 Euros, they say you free yourself, don’t consult the market, choose the company you want, which means you will get the closest company I know, not the best performing one,” he said. President Anac Giuseppe Busia declared that he had unleashed Salvini’s wrath for implying that, according to him, all local rulers were corrupt. But the head of Anac (whom the Union leader wanted his head for) stated that he never said that, “on the contrary, mayors are heroes, especially in small municipalities”. Outside of discussion, the issue remains and is by no means trivial, Massafra said, given that “among Pnrr, cohesion funds and structural funds, the issue of procurement will represent one-third of the national gross domestic product.” .
Massafra: “New Law helps increase organized crime phenomenon”
The new Law simplifies public works but at the same time removes all the qualifying aspects inherent in tender procedures: transparency and free competition between companies, with the risk of opening wide gateways to mafia and corruption. “This is an extremely dangerous issue: the more you liberate and escape control and monitoring, the more uncontrollable mechanisms that can be criminal in nature”. The CGIL’s confederal secretary wanted to remind you that recently organized crime has gained strength and is increasingly turning to public procurement.
“Infiltrations have gone beyond the ‘palm line’ as Sciascia defines it, particularly in the northern regions where organized crime can generate new business volumes through the very mechanism of procurement. The new Law helps to increase this phenomenon and Massafra is mainly the direct allocation of public works. and commented on the rules regarding tiered subcontracting, but let’s go in order.
Tangentopoli risk “realistic”
We have previously announced that with the new Tender Law, the direct transfer costs of public works works are increased before a tender is made. This poses a major problem for many, as it reduces transparency by increasing the risk of corruption. “We share Anac’s stance on this issue: the wider the auction base without a call for tender, the greater the risk of deviating from the point of view of the same designations,” said Massafra. it may be easier than a small contracting station can award a job or service contract to anyone with extreme common sense. This is a disregard for necessary transparency”.
Are we facing the legalization of Tangentopoli? “This is a very strong but unfortunately realistic validation, because if a job, a contract, is divided into many parts within 150k euros, even big jobs can be done without a call for tender”.
More informal work and less security on construction sites
“A number of issues have been dangerously weakened by the authorization law approved by the cabinet,” said Massafra, reiterating that with these changes we are taking a step back from the past. The problems are not only with the direct transfer of public works, but also with subcontracting. Previously there was a limit for subcontracting (maximum of 3 subcontractors), now it has been fully liberalized again in response to a European directive, ie a number of unestablished subcontracting can be carried out. What does this mean? “Even in the presence of the principle that the subcontracted worker should have the same contract and wage guarantees as the contractor company regarding the number of times to be subcontracted, the effective control capacity is lost” .
Thus, our country’s two big problems are getting bigger: informal work and safety at construction sites. “Obviously, the loss of quality of the supply system through compliance with contracts, rules, as well as salary requirements increases job insecurity, and the first risk is safety systems aimed at guaranteeing the safety of workers, especially in the riskiest contracts, namely in construction”.
More waste of time and public money with the New Law
Then there is another big problem that Massafra has highlighted: the problem of contracting stations. “There are more than 30,000 contracting stations in our country, a huge number. This is already a matter of loss of control. We have been asking for a reduction in the number of contracting stations and redevelopment of contracting stations for some time. Large, controlled and structured spending centers are an additional element of guarantee”.
What about integrated purchasing and price reviews? The new Regulation paved the way for integrated purchasing, that is, entrusting both the design and the construction of the work to the same company. “This is becoming a dangerous theme because it’s suitable for a thousand kinds of jobs, which means a waste of time, public money and materials. The less control they pass as bureaucracy has been added to an impressive number of station contractors and contractors. Taking responsibility from those in charge, essentially the purchasing system. It determines a situation that jeopardizes the quality of the work, increases the risks of infiltration, safety and working conditions, and more generally increases costs and public expenditure. It does not have a certain cost. Therefore, there is a risk that the work will not be completed on time, it will cost much more, which is a historical problem of our Village. ”.
Continue reading at Today.it
Source: Today IT

Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.