Pnrr, spent only 8 percent of funds for public works – WWN

In the government report the x-ray of the crisis. The funds are already at risk from the next installment. Palazzo Chigi is asking the EU to change investments so as not to lose anything of the 191.5 billion planned.

In the 163-page government report to Parliament on the Pnrr the word «difficulty» occurs 67 times, that «delays» 16. From the analysis of the state of implementation it emerges that the National recovery and resilience plan either it is rewritten or it will not be respected. The government says it does not want to give up even one euro of the 191.5 billion euros made available by the European Union by 2026. But to do so, explains the report, it will be necessary to remodulate many projects and partially revise the layout of the Plan otherwise already the next installment, the 16 billion one, which will be disbursed only after that Brussels will have verified compliance with the 27 goals assigned for the first half of 2023will be at risk. In this regard, the report reports delays and difficulties on at least 6 projects: the planned 40 hydrogen refueling stations; the purchase of Intercity trains for the South; the construction of 2,500 electric columns for cars on the motorway network and 4,000 in urban areas; the awarding of all tenders to offer at least 264,480 new places in kindergartens and preschools; investments in 9 film studios in Cinecittà; tug of war with the EU over the use of Pnrr funds to replace gas boilers with other gas boilers while according to Brussels they could only be used to replace the old diesel boilers (at stake there are 15 billion of the Planas Federico Fubini explained on Courier of June 2).

Shortage of workers

In truth, the implementation of the Pnrr began to enter a crisis “starting from the first months of 2022”, says the government in the report, above all due to the “bottlenecks on the supply side and the strong acceleration in price dynamics”. But these external factors are compounded, and the report recognizes it, by internal problems. Here are the main ones. “Lack of human resources and mismatch of skills”, with the consequence that “the accentuation of mismatch phenomena risks jeopardizing the implementation of the Plan due to the lack of necessary personnel”, especially in construction and in sectors “connected to the digital transition and green, causing a dilation of implementation times or even jeopardizing its full realization». The document mentions two numbers: with the Pnrr an additional personnel requirement of 375,000 workers is estimated, while between now and 2026 the working population will drop “by about 630,000 units”. Furthermore, the construction sector is inadequate: companies, in 96% of cases, have fewer than 10 workers, often with “a low average level of education” and are not very productive. It therefore comes as no surprise that “for some projects, the delay or failure to achieve the objective is due to the need to re-publish the call for tenders”, since the previous one “was deserted”. Another data: out of 191.5 billion, the Pnrr allocates almost half, 91, for the construction of public works: as at 31 December last, only a little more than 7 billion lire had been spent on this item, ie 8%. Not a good sign, considering that in the next three years 84 would have to be spent.

Budget

“Almost all of the municipal bodies are involved in the initiatives of the Plan”, but “the effective capacity of the individual implementing bodies to carry out the interventions has not been properly assessed”, we read. Taking historical gross fixed capital formation expenditure by municipalities as a basis, emerge that to implement the Pnrr these entities would have to spend more than 66% more each year until 2026, going from an average annual expenditure of 9 billion in the period 2017-20 to 15 billion. But the spending capacity of the municipal administrations encounters “obstacles that are difficult to overcome in the short term due to the lack of human resources and the lack of managerial and technical skills”. The icing on the cake: «The investments are divided into the competence of many implementing subjects, extremely varied in size, administrative capacity and financial solidity (Municipalities, Provinces, Regions, Metropolitan Cities, concessionary companies, Universities and research institutions, Superintendents)». Out of 152,000 projects that the Pnrr expects to be awarded through tenders, half, or 76,000, have an amount of less than 70,000 euros, only 16,000 are between 1 and 5 million euros and just 3,301 are above 5 million.

120 projects in difficulty

Summing up, there are “120 measures in relation to which elements of difficulty have been identified in their implementation”, says the report. Of these, those in worse shape (3 or 4 critical factors) are 11. Among which: «measures for the management of flood risk and for the reduction of hydrogeological risk»; the “investments in sewage and purification”; the «development of biomethane»; the Brescia-Verona-Vicenza-Padua high-speed line; the Italy 5G Plan. Given the situation, the government concludes, “it is unavoidable to tackle a broad process of reprogramming the measures, in agreement with the European institutions”. The executive confirms its willingness to present the proposals in Brussels “by August 2023, in line with the provisions of Regulation 2021/241”. The interventions that cannot be carried out within the timescales set by the Pnrr will be moved to “other sources of funding” starting from the complementary national plan. Others will be placed “at the expense of the 2021-2027 programming of the Structural Funds and the 2021-2027 Development and Cohesion Fund”. All this, the government assures, is to “ensure the full implementation of the Plan and above all the achievement of all the qualitative and quantitative objectives envisaged”. Which today seems like a feat.