We are in the middle of a turning point. After years of “zero-cost innovation”, made up mostly of poorly applied proclamations and decrees, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) has really put digital transformation at the center, allocating more than 27% of resources for interventions digitization ranging from dematerialization to online services, from connectivity to the cloud, from cybersecurity to digital skills.
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All the speakers of the Italian Tech Week
Thus, one of the main alibis that, in the last twenty years, has been used to slow down any attempt at innovation in the public sector, is lost. But we must be careful not to think that the allocation of such huge funds is in itself sufficient to achieve the goal of a modern public administration, capable of guaranteeing the effectiveness of digital rights and ready to face social and technological challenges. of the present and the future. As the Prime Minister Draghi and the Minister for Technological Innovation Vittorio Colao have repeatedly pointed out, the real challenge is that of implementing the NRP.
Italian Tech Week 2021, Minister Vittorio Colao: “From 5G to the PA, the plan to relaunch Italy”
A few decades ago Italo Calvino traced a fundamental course for writing with his “American lessons”. There are six clear principles that, today, can represent a useful trace for the full realization of the digital change that the country needs, perhaps learning from the mistakes made in the past.
Lightness
“My operation was most of the time a weight loss”.
The digitization of the PA cannot take place without a rethinking (the term “reform” is now overused) of its operating mechanisms. It is not possible to innovate without conceiving a new administration that – starting from the rules that govern it – is simple and effective precisely because, finally, it is “light” and free from unnecessary and formalistic requirements and steps. It is a matter of rules, but above all linked to the affirmation of a new administrative culture.
Quickness
“The speed of style and thought means above all agility, mobility, ease”.
The simplification processes must make the activities of administrations finally consistent with the needs of society. But speed must characterize the implementation of the PNRR itself, allowing for example to effectively address the needs of procurement of IT goods and services. The length of the Italian procurement procedures are well known and the simplification interventions did not bring the desired effects. The risk is evident: the slowness of processes and contracts could compromise the implementation of the Plan.
Accuracy
“The same intolerable annoyance that I feel every time I notice how more and more often the word becomes a plot among which to hide and hide, bewitching lulling or even worse endless ranting”.
The digitization of procedures and services must not be limited to the facade, but must always put the needs of users at the center.
Visibility
“Writing, verbal rendering, takes on more and more importance; I would say that from the moment I start putting pen to paper, it is the written word that counts ”.
The process of implementation and reporting of the actions envisaged by the Plan should be managed transparently, making available – in a timely manner – all the open data that allow civic monitoring and collaboration.
Multiplicity
“Even if the general design has been meticulously designed, what counts is not its closing into a harmonious figure, but the centrifugal force that is released from it, the plurality of languages as a guarantee of a non-partial truth”.
Digital Italy is patchy, with few real excellences and most of the administrations lagging behind.
Concreteness
“A beginning deserves the name when it initiates a selection that leads to a coherent conclusion.”
Implementation of the PNRR will have to involve the achievement of clear objectives. The PNRR will have failed if it fails to achieve a reduction in the operating costs of the public machine, an increase in administrative efficiency, an improvement in the quality of life of people and the competitiveness of the country. To do this, regulations are not enough but digital and managerial skills of all those who are called to its concrete implementation are needed.
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