Description
Organisational Structure
Over the years, the Province has developed an articulation of the provincial public system structured on several levels of government, with the simultaneous presence of a set of bodies and entities that are functional and instrumental to the implementation of public policies. This articulation has found a specific definition in the institutional reform law (Provincial Law no. 3 of 16 June 2006), which outlined the organisational model assumed by the Province for the exercise of its functions. The latter contemplates not only agencies, bodies directly answerable to the Province with a high degree of technical, operational, administrative and accounting autonomy, but also external entities, 'instrumental bodies', set up for the exercise of functions and for the organisation and management of public services reserved for the provincial level, as well as for the performance of activities instrumental to institutional activities, with different legal configurations: public bodies, foundations, joint-stock companies.
With regard to companies in particular, the Province has set up 'system companies', i.e. instruments supporting all the entities of the provincial system (local authorities, functional entities, agencies, foundations, educational institutions, investee companies, etc.), enabling even smaller entities to benefit from highly innovative and integrated solutions, as well as from the benefits deriving from the specialised and aggregated performance of specific activities. Reference is in particular made to Trentino Digitale, Trentino Riscossioni, Patrimonio del Trentino and Cassa del Trentino.
Moreover, the objective of guaranteeing adequate volumes of public resources to finance strategic interventions to support the territory's economy, in a context of safeguarding high levels of social cohesion, requires a structural process of expenditure control and revision. In this regard, in recent years the Province has promoted further actions to reorganise the provincial public sector at the various institutional levels, in order to continue the process aimed at improving its structure according to principles of efficiency and effectiveness, innovation and simplification, subsidiarity and adequacy.
This is the context in particular for the reorganisation of the provincial public system in its various components, which are also affected by the lines of intervention of the state legislature. These include, most recently, the implementing decrees of the Public Administration reform (Law no. 124 of 2015), which regulate modes and limits of public intervention through specific types of entities (investee companies) or in particular sectors (public services).
Specifically, publicly owned companies were regulated by the 'Testo unico in materia di società a partecipazione pubblica', approved by Legislative Decree 175/2016. At the provincial level, the regulatory framework was adapted to the provisions of the aforementioned decree by Article 7 of the Provincial Law no. 19 of 29 December 2016..
| Legislative Decree 175/2016 intervened with reference to the following issues: admissibility of the participation of public administrations in companies, principles on the organisation and management of publicly controlled companies and periodic reviews by public administrations of the shareholdings held (ordinary and extraordinary). |
Reference legislation
The process of reorganising the Province's shareholdings
In order to pursue greater effectiveness and efficiency in its subsidiaries in pursuit of the strategic objectives and guidelines outlined in the economic-financial manoeuvres, the Province, as early as 2012, had begun a process of rationalisation and reorganisation, through the approval of specific reorganisation programmes. This process accelerated from 2015, with the approval of specific lines of reorganisation of the system of provincial holdings approved with resolution No. 1909 of 2 November 2015.
| The lines of reorganisation of the system of provincial shareholdings approved by Resolution No. 1909 of 2 November 2015 envisage, as regards action to reduce the number and load of provincial companies, a process aimed at - to the aggregation by specialised poles as homogeneous macro areas by reference sector and assigned functions - to the valorisation of publicly owned infrastructure and assets against the investments made; - the redefinition in a strategic key of the general interest mission entrusted to companies operating in highly specific sectors; - the divestment of shareholdings that are no longer strategic for the Province's institutional activities and of activities concerning areas already open to the market. |
By resolution no. 542 of 8 April 2016 the Provincial Council approved the first programme for the reorganisation and reorganisation of provincial companies, providing for the implementation of the overall path outlined in the guidelines.
| By Resolution No. 542 of 8 April 2016, the Provincial Council approved the programme for the reorganisation and reorganisation of provincial companies - 2016, providing that the overall path outlined in the guidelines would be the subject of implementation drawings, to be defined in the form of: (a) individual reorganisation programmes, pursuant to Article 18 of Provincial Law No. 1 of 10 February 2005, for specialised poles relating to: - liquidity; - transport; - information technology and telecommunications; - real estate; - spatial development (including the cableway sector); b) punctual measures to reconfigure the general interest mission at the legislative/administrative level: - for housing; - for IT networks; - for credit, without prejudice to the possibility of intervening with the adoption of a programme for the reorganisation of holdings in the credit sector pursuant to Article 18 of Provincial Law No. 1 of 10 February 2005 - for energy, with the objective of favouring the aggregation (and eventual listing on the stock exchange) of Dolomiti Energia S.p.a. with other players - for mobility, with the consolidation of Interbrennero S.p.A. into Autostrada del Brennero S.p.A.. The path outlined therefore constitutes a framework to be progressively integrated in stages, also in relation to the complexity of a reorganisation process of realities so heterogeneous in terms of size, sectors and functions. It follows, especially where merger operations are necessary, that within the specific reorganisation programme of the individual pole, plans for integration and organisational change are drawn up, in order to optimise both the operational profile and the relationship between costs and benefits. The aggregation by poles has in itself a twofold finalistic value: due to the homogeneity of functions and activities it contributes to the reduction of public expenditure and at the same time reshapes entities with a higher degree of specialisation. By operating in this way, polarisation leads to both internal improvement and reduction of the public apparatus. |
Subsequent approved programmes for the reorganisation and reorganisation of provincial companies and reviews on the status of their implementation are published in the transparent administration area, under controlled entities - investee companies.
Directives to subsidiary companies
The process of rationalisation of public intervention and expenditure containment implemented in recent years and the demand of the local economic system for increasing efficiency in the use of provincial budget resources have also highlighted the need for the Administration to provide itself, within the framework of its financial policies, with a 'governance tool' also for the subsidiary companies, as components of the organisation of the provincial public system.
This need is even more evident following the amendment to the statutory financial system brought about by the Law No. 190/2014.
| Law No. 190/2014 incorporated the contents of the so-called'Guarantee Pact' and introduced as an innovative element in the regulation of financial relations between the aforementioned autonomies of Trentino-Alto Adige and the State the reference to the integrated regional territorial system, consisting of the Region, the Provinces, the local authorities, the relevant instrumental public and private bodies and entities, the health agencies, the Universities, the Chambers of Commerce and the other regional and provincial bodies ordinarily financed by the Region and the Provinces. The aforementioned model envisages that the entities of the territorial system of each Province guarantee a unitary overall contribution to the public finance targets, a contribution quantified within the framework of the Guarantee Pact implemented by the aforementioned Law No. 190/2014, which also identified the criteria for its updating. This is a form of joint responsibility of the integrated provincial territorial system towards the State within which the Province assumes the role of guarantor. In this regard, the 'Guarantee Pact' has confirmed, and strengthened, a model already introduced into the statutory system following the 2009 Milan Agreement, and incorporated into the provincial legislation with Article 2 of Provincial Law no. 27 of 2010, which provides for the issuance of specific directives to the agencies and instrumental bodies both to guarantee their contribution to public finance objectives, and to rationalise and contain specific expenditure items. |
With particular reference to companies, mention should also be made of the regulations set forth in Articles 18 and 18 bis of Provincial Law No. 1 of 10 February 2005 and Article 7 of Provincial Law No. 4 of 12 May 2004. 4 of 12 May 2004, which provides for the possibility of issuing directives to the companies controlled by the Province aimed, on the one hand, at ensuring a 'group logic', so that each company guarantees a correct and timely transposition of the guidelines issued by the Province in its role as 'parent company' and, on the other hand, at co-responsibility of the aforesaid companies in the pursuit of the commitments undertaken and therefore at harmonising the economic and financial planning instruments of these entities with the corresponding instruments of the Province.
The directives are published in thetransparent administration area, under controlled entities - investee companies.
