PNNR, Innovation and Open Government

The European Union, with the digital target of at least 20% for Recovery and Resilience Facility, promotes investment in Member States’ digital technologies, infrastructures and processes to increase European competitiveness on a global scale. In this context, the Italian priority is to recover the deep digital divide also in culture, as highlighted by the fourth last place in the EU of the country in the DESI index (Index of digitalization of the economy and society), and by the last place on digital skills .

“The National Recovery and Resilience Plan requires an Italian turning point, in the planning and implementation of investments, which marks a decisive discontinuity for sustainable development, digitization and innovation, the reduction of gaps and inequalities … L ” action to relaunch the country outlined in the Plan is guided by policy objectives and interventions connected to three strategic axes: digitization and innovation, ecological transition and social inclusion … The digitization and innovation of processes, products and services, characterize every Plan reform policy, from taxation to public administration … The six missions of the PNRR represent structural “thematic” areas of intervention: 1. Digitization, innovation, competitiveness and culture; 2. Green revolution and ecological transition; 3. Infrastructures for sustainable mobility; 4. Education and research; 5. Inclusion and cohesion; 6. Health “.

Mission 1 of Chapter 2.B of the PNRR and in particular point M1C1 envisages interventions on “Digitization, innovation and security in the PA” with an expected funding of € 9.75 billion.

Digitization and innovation are certainly transversal themes to every PNRR intervention and also the Public Administration can and must seize this opportunity to allow the country the desired and necessary recovery, also focusing on specific Open Government interventions.

Actions concerning the following areas are defined in the 2020-2023 Simplification Agenda provided for by the Simplification Decree (Legislative Decree 16 July 2020, n.76):

1. The simplification and re-engineering of procedures
2. The speeding up of procedures
3. Simplification and digitization
4. The implementation of targeted actions to overcome bureaucratic obstacles in the key sectors of the Recovery Plan

Furthermore, the “Simplification and Digitization” chapter defines not only the importance of digitization to improve access to administrative procedures and to ensure effective and efficient management, but the need is strongly reiterated as defined in the first eGovernment Plan (approved by the Committee of Ministers for the Information Society on 23 June 2000, in line with the e_Europe initiative of the European Union) which states: “when requesting a service, the citizen, in addition to the identification tools personnel, must not provide any information concerning him and that is already in the possession of any State administration. Once the citizen has been identified, the front-office information system must be able to find, directly from each administration who owns them, all the information that allows to authorize the provision of the requested service “.

This is the “once only” principle which is now even more easily implemented thanks to technologies and new platforms (such as ANPR and the Cloud).

Moreover, the term e-government already indicated a new approach by institutions to technologies as tools also to guarantee stakeholder involvement and participation in governance processes, the basis of what was then activated 10 years later with Open Government.

“The digitalization of technological infrastructures and public services is a commitment that can no longer be postponed to make the Public Administration a true” ally “of citizens and businesses. reduce bureaucracy times … An effective Public Administration must be able to support citizens and businesses with increasingly performing and universally accessible services, of which digital is an essential prerequisite … The important investment and reform plan envisaged by the National Plan of recovery and resilience wants to put Italy in the leading group in Europe by 2026. To do this, it sets five ambitious goals:

1. Spreading the digital identity, ensuring that it is used by 70% of the population;
2. Bridging the digital skills gap, with at least 70% of the population being digitally capable;
3. Bring about 75% of Italian PAs to use cloud services;
4. Reach at least 80% of essential public services provided online;
5. Reach, in collaboration with the Mise, 100% of Italian families and businesses with ultra-broadband networks. (Digital Italy 2006)

Following the recommendations of the OECD on “Digital governance strategies” which talk about the enhancement of digital technologies for more open, participatory and innovative governments, the following interventions must be envisaged:

• using technology to improve government accountability, social inclusion and collaboration
• creating a data-driven culture in the public sector
• use of digital technologies in all policy areas and levels of government
• strengthening the links between digital government and broader public governance agendas
• risk management to address digital security and privacy issues
• strengthening of institutional capacities to manage and monitor the implementation of projects
• review of legal and regulatory frameworks to enable digital opportunities to be seized

The essential premise for implementing the principles indicated above is therefore the simplification of legislation, particularly in the innovation sector; simplification which must be followed by a profound re-engineering of the processes and subsequently the digitization of the same.

The centrality of interoperability between processes and between administrations is the first point on which interventions must also be envisaged to guarantee the right of citizens to “once only” described in the introduction.

The data see our country in backward positions as regards digital skills, not only in the Public Administration for which interventions are already being implemented and investments in widespread training will have to be foreseen to guarantee officials and managers adequate digital skills, but also for citizens (as required by DigComp 2.1). The reference framework for citizens’ digital skills “) both to support them in accessing online services and specifically for Open Government issues: ability to access and interact with participation and collaboration platforms, ability to proactively intervene on issues transparency and accountability Citizens must also be enabled to act collectively through NGOs and other forms of participation in civil society.

Furthermore, the territorial experiences that already guarantee the requirements of the PNRR, which envisages strengthening the territorial digital support network and the Digital Civil Service, must also be increased, strengthened and enriched.

As shown in Table 1, there are still few Regions that envisage interventions such as the Diffused School for Participation and Digital Citizenship (established with the Deliberation of the Capitoline Council n.116 / 2019 of 21 June 2019). These interventions have the objective of activating training and awareness-raising activities for the development of the digital culture of citizens by improving their ability to access online services, participation in the decision-making processes of public institutions and favoring access and reuse of information. produced and owned by public administrations.

Table 1: “Operational plan of the national strategy for digital skills.

Finally, in addition to simplifying access to services that must avoid access to branches where possible by offering “digital first” services, a further intervention must include the integration of enabling platforms for access to services and data, guaranteeing accessibility, usability and inclusion.