As recalled by ANCI, the PNRR allocated EUR 40 billion for municipalities and metropolitan cities: “In history – Davide D’Arcangelo points out – ‘there has never been so much money to spend, but the lack of planning is a matter of concern and undermines the ‘grounding’ of the recovery and resilience plan.“.

oday, several critical issues persist in the implementation of the Plan. In addition to the delays in the submission of projects, there are also the continuous extensions of deadlines and the widening gap in performance between north and south. It is therefore essential to allow municipalities to rely on new professionalism to avoid squandering the funds granted. This is where the figure of the public innovation manager comes in, a professional whose presence is central to the digital transition of municipalities. The new figure would thus contribute not only to the optimisation of communication between the central government and the territories, but also to the implementation of projects financed by the PNRR and their future management: authorities today need to rethink their entire processes, their role and their services.

Impatta, recalls Davide D’Arcangelo, is committed to tackling the issue of the skills gap “to avoid a new Cassa del Mezzogiorno effect”. The network has therefore launched, together with the Public Innovation Management Association and Ecoter and with the patronage of the Rome Chamber of Commerce, the first training course dedicated to the figure of the public innovation manager A network of global innovators also took part in the project, involving organisations such as the MIT in Boston or Harvard University. Through a series of transversal skills, the course introduces the public-private partnership, pre-public procurement and all the new frontiers of European programming. It also includes elements of digital skills and energy management. It thus outlines “‘an evolved project manager, capable of redesigning processes and making the execution of many interventions certifiable and controllable. It is a new cultural approach to public administration.

In the last 15 years, PA spending has decreased by 40 per cent and “today it finds itself having to manage a lot of money without having the structures and skills to activate all those processes that are needed to ‘make spending happen’”. PA must therefore be able to rely on “figures with the appropriate know-how to take advantage of new financial products, new sharing technologies, and the ‘sharing’ in the maintenance and operation of infrastructures in progress”, explained Davide D’Arcangelo. “The public innovation manager – he concluded – is not only needed in the immediate future, but will be indispensable in the future to ensure that public spending is managed and maintained, and becomes effective”.

For more information: https://roma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2022/09/10/news/anci_lazio_al_via_la_quarta_edizione_del_training_camp_ventotene-365068114/
https://www.agendadigitale.eu/cittadinanza-digitale/public-innovation-manager-cosa-fa-e-perche-e-cruciale-per-la-transizione-digitale-dei-comuni/