The market of public contracts in Tuscany: trend analysis and potential impact of the new code

In recent years, there has been a significant decrease in the domestic market of public works, heavily affected by the tightening of budgets of public authorities, which in turn derive from the public finance constraints and the credit crunch gone hand in hand with the economic crisis. In this unfavourable economic phase, an ever growing attention is being paid to the slightest sign of recovery in this component of public expenditure, particularly after the latest interventions adopted by the central government, aimed at alleviating at least some of the constraints imposed on capital expenditure of local authorities. The analysis of economic trends suggested in this work takes into account the whole market of public procurement in Tuscany (public works, services and supplies).

Given this recessionary framework, several parties have increasingly recommended measures designed to increase the level of efficiency of interventions, i.e. by enhancing the quality of public expenditure, and avoiding cases of corruption, an unjustified increase in the work’s final cost or a longer than needed time to fulfil it. In this respect, the reorganization of public procurement rules contained in the new code constitutes the most significant change. In fact, many amendments to procurement law are aimed at lowering post-contractual renegotiations by addressing the quality of the project, the qualification of the contractors and firms involved. A part of this work is indeed devoted to the investigation of the critical factors of the public works market in Tuscany, and the evaluation of the possible effects arising from the application of the new code’s provisions.

This work is edited by Giuseppe Gori under the coordination of Patrizia Lattarulo, head of the IRPET research unit “Public economy and territorial policies”.