The Court of Auditors needs a more organic control reform

In these days the Chamber of Deputies is discussing a bill to reform the Court of Auditors (AC 1621) that risks distorting the functions of this important institution, which is part of the complex democratic system of balancing the powers of the State, whose ultimate purpose is to act as an impartial guarantor of the economic and financial balance of the public sector (as the Constitutional Court has long taught and the President of the Republic has also reminded us, most recently). Which also means checking that public expenditure, incurred through taxation, is going well and can ensure that citizens receive the essential services to which they are entitled.

The draft law is drawing protests from the Association of Accounting Magistrates and has been the subject of several critical remarks by the highest collegial body of the Court (the Sezioni Riunite) and, at the parliamentary hearing, by the Institute's top leader, President Guido Carlino.

While agreeing with these observations - starting with those that seriously jeopardise the autonomy of the public accounting prosecutor - I would like to focus on the impact of the reform on a recently introduced (or revitalised) form of control, the so-called concurrent control.

The experience of the College, set up specifically for this purpose in 2022, shows how its recommendations, aimed at stimulating the self-correcting actions of (central) administrations, have in many cases led to an acceleration of the public plans, programmes or projects under review. To give just a few examples, central administrations were urged to make use of more effective monitoring of interventions (in the area of 'ultra broadband in white areas', 'Single Strategic Zones Plan', 'Development and Cohesion Plan - Culture') or greater coordination (in the area of 'Fund for the fight against land consumption', 'National Energy Efficiency Fund').

This modern and effective model of in itinere control of the performance of public administrations, which therefore looks at the (progressive) results to be achieved and is also based on the use of special indicators, has aroused, among other things, considerable interest in national doctrine and also at a European and international level (in whose practice it corresponds to real time audit), in particular, at the Eurosai (the European body that brings together the Supreme Audit Institutions).