PRESS RELEASE
"New Cad, let's not miss the opportunity to really transform the PA"
The General States of Innovation association at the government hearing
The Stati Generali dell'Innovazione association participated yesterday, 23 February, in the hearing organized by the government on the legislative decree amending the Cad approved in the preliminary examination on 20 January, presenting over twenty proposals for amendments on various topics.
“We were favorably surprised by the hearing, even though it was organized in a very short time, when we thought by now that the definitive choice of the government was to proceed ignoring the dialogue with civil society. We believe that the listening attitude shown by government representatives and the richness and punctuality of the observations presented by all the organizations invited clearly demonstrate that a participatory process is the best guarantee for the quality of the decisions. In fact, the meeting was a good and useful opportunity for discussion for the presentation of proposals that can be taken into consideration to integrate and improve the government's amendments, also by opening a permanent consultation” said the president Flavia Marzano.
Among the many changes requested, those on the issues of organization and governance defined in the text (for a third party ombudsman and to set up a multi-stakeholder consultation including associations of citizens, professionals and businesses), on restoring maximum attention on the issues of open data, open source software and business continuity (subject to partial or total repeals), on the minimum share capital requirement for trust service managers (which as it stands does not seem oriented towards guaranteeing the service but only to raise entry barriers for businesses in an unsustainable way), on intelligent communities (a fundamental issue which the text effectively cancels).
“We have also highlighted those issues that the enabling law reforming the PA put in the foreground and which we did not find in the text. For example, something that went in the direction of open administration (and not just digital), or on the process of measuring and evaluating performance, which means setting up a real management control for the governance of PA processes and not just defining goals for managers”, added Nello Iacono, vice president of the association.
On several of the proposals, the government representatives (the head of department Marconi and Gullo for the Department of Public Administration, the director of Agid Samaritani, the MPs Boccadutri, Coppola and Quintarelli, the digital champion Luna) affirmed their intention to proceed with a more accurate reflection and it is the intention of the association to continue the work of support and pressure, also in coordination with other organizations and experts, to ensure that the definitive text can truly seize the opportunity for transformation of the PAs which today seems feasible. But we need, to the end, the courage to change even risking unpopularity in the administrations, in the strong powers and, at the same time, the will to open up to confrontation.
Let's hope that this first meeting is auspicious.