Valditara: "Efficiency and speed: the Genoa model for school buildings"
The Council of Ministers today approved the decree which partially redesigns the governance of the PNRR, presented by the Minister for European Affairs Raffaele Fitto. Within this decree, the measures under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and Merit concern the acceleration of school building interventions and represent the first step in a major simplification plan that will involve all sectors of the school.
The objective of the ministerial provision is to support local authorities in school building interventions and in the implementation of the PNRR, simplifying the implementation procedures and related mechanisms, the complexity of which risked causing delays.
“Now it will be possible to proceed faster and more effectively, a sort of extension of the 'Genoa model', commented Minister Giuseppe Valditara. "This decree is the result of the great alliance that we immediately wanted to build not only within the school world, but also with the major institutional players: these are measures that arise from the collaboration with the Regions, with the Provinces and with the Common. From local authorities we have received a strong request for simplification to make possible the implementation of school building projects, staff training and digitization".
In fact, the decree envisages bid rebates not only for new PNRR projects but also for existing ones and the possibility for Mayors and Presidents of Metropolitan Cities and Provinces to avail themselves of the support of other public structures. The thresholds for resorting to direct assignments have also been raised.
THE MAIN POINTS OF THE DECREE
Auction discounts also for "existing projects"
The possibility has been introduced for local authorities to use the auction rebates for school building interventions also for "existing projects" and no longer only for PNRR projects, as envisaged up to now by the legislation. This will make it possible to remove a constraint on the use of these resources, quantifiable at over 350 million, thus being able to contribute to remedying the phenomenon of the increase in the cost of materials.
Faster procurement times
To ensure compliance with the times indicated by the European milestones of the PNRR, the accelerator measures for the execution of school building interventions are strengthened. Mayors and Presidents of the Province and of the Metropolitan City, who have already had the powers of Extraordinary Commissioner for school construction since 2020, will now be able to make use of other public, central and local structures, to receive specialist support. A fee is foreseen which is included in the economic framework and which does not exceed 6% of the value of the work. In this way, the times for the safety works can be further accelerated, in compliance with national and European legislation and guaranteeing support to smaller local authorities, lacking specific technical professionalism that can follow the contracts.
Further simplification and acceleration measures are introduced, as requested by the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI), such as, in particular:
- the extension of the possibility of operating as extraordinary commissioners for school construction - already envisaged until 31 December 2026 for Mayors and Presidents of the Province and of the Metropolitan City - also to the subjects implementing the interventions, to the contracting authorities (if different from the subjects implementing the ), central purchasing bodies and general contractors; the introduction of specific exceptions to the code of public contracts regarding the purchase and planning of public works, procedures for the approval of projects relating to the works, stipulation of the contract, controls on the assignment deeds, aggregations and centralization of commissions, selection commissions with relative register and criteria for awarding the contract;
- raising the threshold for the direct assignment of services and supplies, including engineering/architecture services and design activities. In such cases, the direct assignment may be made even without consulting several economic operators (without prejudice to the cardinal principles regarding the award and execution of contracts and the necessary choice of subjects who have previous and documented experiences similar to those being awarded );
- the exceptions to the public contracts code are also extended to the framework agreements for the assignment of technical services and works stipulated by Invitalia, and also for the joint assignment of planning and execution.
Lease of real estate and rental of temporary structures:
resources for 4 million euros
To ensure educational continuity in the intervention of the PNRR called "Construction of new schools by replacing buildings", the expenditure of 4 million euros was authorized for the leasing of buildings or for the rental of temporary modular structures for school use, for the time necessary to carry out the demolition and reconstruction works of the buildings concerned.
As part of the same intervention, the procedures for the design competition have been simplified: the prizes will be paid directly on the basis of the evaluations of the selection commissions, referring to the local authorities the checks on the possession of the general requirements and professional, economic and financial suitability and technical-organisational. The local authorities will then entrust the winners of the competition with subsequent design levels, as well as the supervision of the works, with a negotiated procedure without prior publication of the call for tenders, if the local authorities themselves do not decide, to guarantee the milestone of the PNRR, to resort to the measure of the contract.
Territorial training teams for the digitization of schools
To support schools in digitization, it is planned to extend the measure relating to territorial training teams to the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 school years, also including the actions and investments of the PNRR. The teams are made up of teachers who, in the territories and at the Regional School Offices, offer support and accompaniment to the institutes in implementing the training measures.