Penelope's Cloth

There have been numerous reforms of the public administration budget process over the years. A superficial assessment might suggest an active and innovative legislature, but a closer look may reveal that the main feature of these reforms is rather to be like Penelope's cloth. Ulysses' faithful wife wove and then undid her fabric so it would never be finished until her husband's return. Similarly, in Italian PA centralization and decentralization alternate over time, as do emphasis on internal or external controls, corporate managerial autonomy versus return to bureaucratic constraints, adoption of new accounting systems ( economic accounting and consolidated financial statements) and reaffirmation or strengthening the traditional ones ( financial accounting, cash system).

This is partly a reflection of changing society, economy and institutions. In practice, however, uncertainty and excessive legislative mobility may result in administrative paralysis. The challenge of accounting reforms , then, is played out not only on a technical level, but also at the political and managerial levels.

On the technical level, you can now improve public budgets in three ways. First, link more closely the efforts of organizational performance measurement with the ' political ' and financial budget cycle as well as with the concrete results of operations. Second, invest in transparency , not only as a formal requirement of the budget documents and websites imposed by law, but also as an indispensable component of the corporate culture and professional ethics of the public manager. The adoption of an open data policy and the introduction of consolidated financial statements represent interesting examples pointing in this direction. Third , avoid duplication and ensure compatibility and integration with legacy equipment when new tools are introduced. For example, different laws over time have led to the overlapping of planning, scheduling and tracking documents with reporting and accounts documents, causing confusion and an accumulation of regulatory obligations which is not necessarily matched by any actual use of the documents , nor by an improvement in decision-making .

Likewise, for the last twenty years, on the occasion of any reform of public accounting , after heated debate , we come to place the assets and liabilities balance sheet side by side with traditional financial accounting, despite the evidence proving the ineffectiveness of their coexistence.

On a political level, it is necessary that accounting reforms be the result of an assumption of responsibility, not only at the time of their approval, but also in the implementation phase , and therefore that the adoption of new regulations is accompanied by processes to facilitate the implementation. In managerial terms , this requires not only a focus on innovation , but also an effort to ensure an effective process of change. To this end, we need to invest in building technical capacity and leadership, but we must also be aware that the success of the reform will depend on the new configuration of power, interests, and values ​​that it will generate and which in turn will affect the daily operation of government