Breakthrough after 12 years of delays: the public administration now pays companies within 30 days

Among the 40 NRP targets of 30 June that Italy will certify it has achieved in order to apply for the recognition of the eighth instalment of 12.8 billion euro, there are eight that together mark a historic turning point: the Italian public administration pays on average within the time limits set by law, which call for suppliers to wait no longer than 30 days and allow 60 days in the case of healthcare. The feat has been achieved by all sectors of the public sector (there are 8 targets because they cover average times and delays in the central public administration, regions, health and local authorities), and is measured by the monitoring just published by the State General Accounting Office.

The tables show the finish line of a battle against late payment that began way back in 2013, when invoices submitted to public offices languished on average 120-130 days before being paid. From those figures, a very hard blow for an economy already in recession (-1.7 per cent of GDP on the year before) due to the fallout of the financial crisis, one of the most voluminous economic policy measures ever implemented up to that time started with the Letta government, with a mechanism of liquidity advances by the MEF and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti that in several rounds distributed 34.4 billion to regions (25.4 billion) and local authorities (9 billion) to settle trade debts and mitigate the all-Italian phenomenon of the death of businesses choked by credits and not debts. Along with the money came a shower of rules that, after a few initial attempts gone awry, managed over time to harness public payments within the legal deadlines. Concluding the construction site of one of the most substantial reforms for the public machine and its effect on the real economy, even if surrounded by the distracted silence of so much of the political debate.

Thus, the calculations of the Ministry of the Economy show that at the end of 2024 the average time taken by the public administration to honour its trade debts has been reduced to 30 days, at the end of a gradual descent that in recent years had reduced it from an average of 43 days in 2019 to 33 in 2023. Looking only at ministries, the average wait has come down to 29 days (from 53 in 2019), and even better are local authorities, which pay in 26 days (it was 42 five years earlier). In healthcare, where the rules offer 60 days, the counter stops at 35. Thanks to the acceleration, 81% of the amounts were paid on time, a condition that only affected 69% of the amounts in 2019.

All this occurred despite the sharp growth of invoices submitted to the offices of the various administrations, fuelled by the multiplication of measures introduced in recent years also to implement the other branches of the NRP, as well as by inflation, which inflated many amounts between 2021 and 2023. Last year, the public administrations as a whole received 30,419 payment requests for a total amount of EUR 197.99 billion, an increase of 7.3% on the year before and 35.5% compared to 2019, and they paid 95.9% (EUR 189.85 billion; in this case the increase over the five years is 38.82%). This metric also indicates an even higher rate of "virtuosity" on the part of local authorities, because municipalities, metropolitan cities, and provinces paid 97.6% of their invoices during the year (53.3 billion out of 54.6): amounts that are 44.3% higher than the payments made in 2019.

"The important results achieved stem from a plurality of actions taken over time, which found in the monitoring activities the main premise and summary point," the General Accounting Office summarises in the technical note accompanying the updated monitoring.