E-GOVERNANCE FOR CHANGE AND INNOVATION IN THE ITALIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Abstract

 There is widespread consensus that innovation in the PA clearly cannot take place without complex intervention, i.e. not simply through new legislation but by re-engineering processes, rethinking organizational models and managing change in line with frequent recommendations by the European Commission.

Italy in particular, has frequently been urged by the EC to develop its “administrative capacity”, above all in “sustaining widespread, horizontal reform and good governance in its Public Administration”. In this context, the issues of funding, training and overcoming the digital divide play an extremely relevant and innovative role in fostering e-governance. As concerns funding in particular, the link between the new Structural Funds and the Europe 2020 Strategy implies relevant effects on the process of programming, implementation and control assigned to the Administrations responsible. European funding requires the observance of a wide range of ex-ante conditionality constraints, the (measurable) adapting of the regulatory and implementation structure and access to resources. Allocating funds to Europe 2020 objectives for Administrations addresses the integrating of objectives with resources. From an aggregative programming perspective (in a logic of multitasking) the shift to a matrix approach implies that each intervention has also to produce peripheral value, in other words, simplified managerial processes based on best practices.

In short, the new Structural Funds are potentially a strong generator of change in PA functions requiring effective adaptation in the organization, cross-cutting relations as opposed to the routine division by function and not least, efficiency and effective management of the control cycle. Thus promoting an efficient PA is the essential condition underpinning the new Structural Funds – Europe 2020 Strategy. Our study analyses the widespread interest in the innovative structure and functioning of the PA and the specific features of the territory in which the PA performs. Notwithstanding, the variety of factors considered opens a new phase of PA capacity building, i.e. integrated administrative capacity building in line with New Public Management.