Simplification through the Sblocca cantieri decree

A few months after the so-called BIM Decree came into force, in the part that makes specific electronic methods and tools mandatory for contracting authorities, granting bodies and economic operators in the design, construction and operation of building and infrastructure works with a tender base value of 100 million euros or more, the construction sector is once again in ferment.

Today, 20 March 2019, the agenda of the Council of Ministers meeting included the examination of the draft decree-law known as Sblocca cantieri (“unblock building sites”), which lays down urgent provisions to relaunch the public contracts sector and measures to speed up infrastructure works. Just 5 articles to deal with amendments to the Public Contracts Code, provisions on award procedures in the event of business insolvency, simpler rules for structural works in seismic zones, extraordinary commissioners and the National Agency for Dam Safety. Within 90 days of the entry into force of the law converting the decree, a single regulation will bring together the ministerial decrees and the guidelines of ANAC (the National Anti-Corruption Authority) already issued to implement the Public Contracts Code.

One noteworthy change is that works for ordinary and extraordinary maintenance can be awarded on the basis of a simplified final design, except for works involving the renewal or replacement of structural parts of buildings or systems, since in these cases a general report, the price list, the bill of quantities with cost estimate, the safety plan and the safety costs will be required. Contracting authorities will be able to award works worth 40,000 euros or more and less than 150,000 euros by direct award after consulting three economic operators. The threshold for launching a negotiated procedure rises from 150 to 350 thousand euros, “with at least ten economic operators identified on the basis of market research or from lists of economic operators, in compliance with a principle of rotation of invitations”. Finally, for infrastructure works considered a priority, the President of the Council of Ministers, on a proposal from the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, appoints one or more extraordinary commissioners, who are responsible for taking every decision deemed necessary to start or continue the works, including suspended ones.

Will the Sblocca cantieri decree take some steps forward on the road to simpler, more economical and more effective administrative action?

An in-depth article by Maria Frattini