The covid has canceled them, but the delivery times of the services have increased
In recent years, the CGIA Studies Office reports, the queue at public counters has continued to lengthen, at least until the advent of Covid. Even though every State entity has had a website for some time from which it is possible to download forms, deeds, certificates and, if necessary, each user can digitally send them to the requesting structure, in the last 20 years those who, on the other hand, have been forced to physically going to an ASL counter or to the registry office of one's own Municipality has seen an increase in waiting times before being able to start speaking with a public employee. Ideally, it is as if between 1999 and 2019 the queue in front of us had lengthened by 20 people in both cases.
• Covid has cut the queues, but the delivery times for services have lengthened
With the advent of Covid, however, things have changed completely. While there is still no statistical evidence, the pandemic has certainly eliminated the queues. But, as was inevitable, the response times of the public administration have increased. Many public offices, in fact, have upset the way users access services. Thanks to the recourse of many smart working employees, many institutions have closed their branches and have conveniently started to work on reservation. Those who, however, could not do this, think, for example, of the many services rendered by the ASLs, the number of users, due to the mobility restrictions imposed by law, has collapsed, thus decreasing the waiting times for those people. who, however, could not fail to undergo a specialist examination or surgery. Although the queues have momentarily disappeared, the delivery times for the services / services have however lengthened. A problem that, since the advent of the pandemic, we had all sensed that it would happen.
• Are one and a half million public employees still working from home?
Hoping that in the coming months Covid will not reserve us further blows in the tail, it is necessary that the Public Administration can count on the presence in the office of all the staff. Both because we need a state machine that works and regains productivity and because there can no longer be two weights and two measures. That is, Serie A workers and Serie B workers. Beyond that, how many civil servants are currently working remotely? According to the Minister for Public Administration, Renato Brunetta, over 50 percent; according to some research presented a few months ago, however, around 30 percent. We believe the data provided by the Minister to be more reliable, even if we take the liberty of underlining that we can no longer allow about one and a half million people to work from home. If, fully staffed, in the pre-Covid period our PA presented levels of satisfaction with the service rendered among the lowest in Europe, let alone now. Mind you, many public sectors during the pandemic have shown extraordinary levels of efficiency, others, however, have tremendously slowed the speed of delivery of benefits, "pushing" many citizens to turn to the private sector, so that many people have been forced to pay twice. : with general taxation and paying the invoice received for the service rendered by a freelancer or a company.
• Between 1999 and 2019 over half of the interviewees waited more than 20 minutes in front of an ASL counter
The results, reached by the CGIA Studies Office, are the result of an elaboration on Istat data. The latter periodically conducts a sample survey on adults who have gone to the counters of our Public Administration (PA) and who report having waited more than 20 minutes. In 2019, the last year in which data are available, 54,8 out of 100 respondents said they waited more than 20 minutes at the counter of an ASL, 55,2 percent more than those who had found themselves in the same situation in 1999. On the other hand, 29,2 out of 100 interviewees remained waiting for a long time in front of a registry office counter two years ago; 172,9 percent more than 20 years earlier.
• “Biblical” waiting times in the Center-South
At the territorial level, the most difficult situations are recorded in the Center-South. At the ASL counters the longest waiting times occurred in Calabria (70,9 people interviewed out of 100 were in line for more than 20 minutes), in Sicily (70,9) and Campania (66,7). The waiting queues at the registry offices, on the other hand, were felt especially in the Municipalities located in Lazio (50), Sicily (40,1) and Puglia (33,1). Among the most virtuous regional realities we note, in both cases, Veneto, Valle d'Aosta and, in particular, in Trentino Alto Adige.
The delays and inefficiencies of our Public Administration, however, are not attributable only to its poor organization. Although the computerization process has affected all of our PA, the queue at the counters in the 20 years analyzed has not grown due to the fault of those who work there. Responsibility must be sought in the effects that characterize many laws, decrees and circulars which, often in contradiction with each other, have dramatically increased the bureaucracy, complicating not only the lives of citizens and businesses, but also that of public employees.
• For our companies, the PA is a big problem
To complain, however, are not only the citizens but also the production system. For 9 out of 10 entrepreneurs, in fact, the Italian PA presents the administrative procedures for companies which represent a big problem. No other country in the Euro Area has recorded such a negative score. Compared to the average of the 19 countries monitored, Italy suffers a differential of 18 percentage points more.
The jumble of rules, regulations and various provisions present in all sectors continue to plaster the country, making life impossible especially for those who want to do business. And never as at this moment, in addition to reforming our state administration, it would be necessary to simplify the regulatory framework, reducing the number of laws through the repeal of older ones, resorting to single texts, thus avoiding the legislative overlap that has on many matters generated lack of communication, lack of transparency, uncertainty of timing and increasingly onerous obligations. We are sure that all this would give a strong boost to the productivity of public personnel, often forced to submit to rigid and senseless organizational procedures that discourage the will to do.