SOSE in Parliamentary Commission for Regional Issues

On 11 June a new hearing of SOSE before the Parliamentary Committee for Regional Affairs took place within the study on the implementation process of differentiated regionalism under art. 116 of Constitution.

The session of 11 June follows the session of last 30 May to deepen some issues emerged during the preceding hearing.

As requested by the Committee, the CEO of SOSE, Vincenzo Atella and the manager of the SOSE Unit “Public Finance Analysis”, Marco Stradiotto explained the methodology used to determine costs and standard expenditure needs in relation to expenses and services provided by Ordinary Statute Regions. Prof. Atella explained to the Members of Parliament how SOSE knowhow and skills can support this important project aiming to overcome the criterion of historical expenditure in the allocation of resources to local authorities by central Government.

The Estimate of Standard expenditure needs allows to determine a set of very useful indicators. Analysing the expenditure and the level of services provided by each local authority it is possible to determine the historical and standard cost of each service also considering the different typologies of provision and the tools supporting policy makers in defining and implementing legislative and management choices. Therefore, standard expenditure needs are a useful tool not only to acquire information and make decisions but also to guarantee expenditure transparency.

Analysing historical and standard expenditure data of municipalities aggregated by number of inhabitants it is possible to obtain the classical U-curve where small and large municipalities show an historical and standard expenditure per inhabitant higher than the national average.

For the first time it is possible to synthetize data relating to historical and standard expenditure per inhabitant of the fundamental municipal functions aggregated by region. Moreover, data relating to the expenses incurred by local authorities aggregated by region can be visualized through a graphic representation. 

During the hearing the issue of determining the current historical reference expenditure and the level of services provided in the Ordinary Statute Regions was discussed. SOSE carried out researches and analyses on local finance and activities concerning municipalities and Ordinary Statute Regions, provinces, metropolitan districts and unions and mergers of municipalities.