Narrow-gauge Pnrr in Basilicata: a bid to speed up

On the balance of the NRP in Basilicata there is approximately 2.2 billion. With investments unevenly spread between projects that are advancing rapidly, others at a slow pace or blocked. Public works in slow motion as in the rest of the country. And the risk, as noted in the 'Report on the Pnrr in Basilicata' to the first half of 2024, is of getting lost in the quagmire of the figures of a Plan that will turn off the taps to those who fail to complete the projects and account for them by December 2026.

"According to the latest report on the regional economy of Basilicata," said the director of the Bank of Italy's Potenza branch, Gennaro Sansone, "from November 2021 to August 2024, tenders for public works worth EUR 840 million were announced. 82% were awarded, which is slightly higher than in Italy and the Mezzogiorno. 54% of the works have not yet been started, 33% have begun, either late or on schedule, and 13% completed, in line with the rest of the country'.

Uncertain data due to the failure to update, in real time, the ReGiS monitoring system, the single platform for project reporting, with most municipalities struggling with the multitude of information required by the system. And the experts of the national pool, a three-year technical assistance tool, expiring, to support local authorities, are not enough. In Basilicata, there were 23 experts in 2022, 19 in 2023, and 17 in 2024. They are few and super-qualified to be used even in reporting operations, which are simple but still too complex for small and unstaffed municipalities.

The approximately 2.2 billion is concentrated on the key projects identified by the Basilicata Region in the six main missions of the NRP: digitalisation, innovation, competitiveness and culture; green revolution and ecological transition; infrastructure for sustainable mobility; education and research; inclusion and cohesion; and health. Slightly more than one billion is governed by external direction (48.7%), ministries and other non-regional public and private entities, e.g. those for major rail and road infrastructure works (Battipaglia-Metaponto; Ferrandina-Matera; Potenza-Foggia), communication, broadband access across the country and smart grids, and 1.1 billion is governed by local direction for projects exclusive to the Region (15.3% of total resources), municipalities (17%), sub-regional authorities and Unibas (9.2%), and private entities, museums, schools and other local authorities (9.8%). "This is an unmissable opportunity to redesign organisational and infrastructural structures and promote national uniformity," says Cosimo Latronico, regional councillor who is also in charge of the NRP. "We cannot but welcome every single challenge contained in the programme, trying to combine resources and needs expressed by the territory in the best possible way.

Resources amounting to approximately EUR 334.7 million are allocated to the Basilicata Region. Since the first monitoring, in December 2022, the total resources to the Region have increased by 23.2 per cent. In particular, the Health Directorate, within which the Pnrr and Digital Health Office has been created, has 118 ongoing projects for 131 million euro: they concern Community Homes, Community Hospitals, Territorial Operating Centres, home care and telemedicine, as well as the purchase of large high-tech healthcare equipment, the optimisation of the electronic health file, and the anti-seismic adaptation of hospitals.