ROME (ITALPRESS) – “We appreciate the proposals that make the Court’s current regulatory framework increasingly consistent with its function of guaranteeing toward the principles of legality of administrative action. We are not concerned about us but about the resources of the citizens, who may not be adequately protected where some of the provisions in the bill are passed. If the state treasury damages are not compensated, citizens will pay, deprived of services guaranteed by public resources and recipients of a probable increase in the tax burden. There is talk of reducing the number of regional prosecutors’ offices, which, among other things, pursue waste in public administration. The possibility of making the treasury (and therefore citizens) achieve compensation for damages and proximity to local governments would be compromised.” Thus, in an interview with the Corriere della Sera, the president of the Court of Auditors, Guido Carlino, on the permanent assembly decided by the accounting magistrates as a protest in response to the Foti bill. “In five years, 13 thousand 720 judgments of responsibility have been celebrated,” he explains. “The numbers concerning our activity should be read carefully. Many filings, for example, allow administrations to obtain spontaneous compensation during investigations. The proposed reform contrasts with the general preventive function to guarantee the constitutional values of good performance and impartiality of public management assigned to the accounting prosecutor. “All judiciaries, and among them the accounting one,” he stresses, “speak with the acts that the legal system requires them to adopt, in relation to the specific functions assigned. In any case, I believe that the interlocutions between the judiciary and politics must be marked by loyal cooperation with the institutions holding political representation, and with Parliament in particular. I recall that there are legal provisions that make the adoption of reforms of our institution conditional on the opinion of the Joint Sections. For this reason, I trust that, during the discussion in Parliament, account will be taken of what the Court in Joint Sections has observed in its advisory capacity. “According to the President of the Court of Auditors, Guido Carlino, “if some of the provisions covered by the bill or certain amendments were approved, the function performed by the accounting judiciary to guarantee the legitimacy of administrative action would be weakened. The limitation of the damages award to a portion to be determined between a minimum equal to 150 euros to a maximum equal to two annuities of the treatment of the official in question poses a number of problems. This weakens the deterrent function inherent in the institution of liability. I fear that the concrete application of the provision under consideration may lead to a departure from the purpose of incentivizing the efficiency of administrative action, encouraging instead negligent conduct on the part of those who manage public resources.” And to the question about the “fear of signing” mentioned by politicians, he replied, “To overcome that fear, we would need regulatory simplification and greater qualification of administrative staff.” Then, with regard to the proposal in which he advocates the need for “psycho-aptitude tests to be held in competition procedures” for the accounting judiciary, he comments, “Competition procedures for the accounting judiciary are reserved for ordinary magistrates, whose psychic aptitude for the performance of important public functions has already been ascertained by the performance of relevant judicial or administrative functions. On the other hand, this should apply to many other professions as well.”- Photogram Agency -(ITALPRESS).
