(Finance) – 470 Italian municipalities (6% of the total) in state of crisis (257 in near-failure and 213 in failure), mainly concentrated in the South, with a growth trend after the years of the pandemic crisis. It is the photograph taken by National Foundation of Accountants in the document “The state of crisis of local authorities: developments and prospects” in which the data, processed on the basis of the most recent findings obtained from various sources (Public administration database – BDAP, Database on the financial criticalities of Italian municipalities – Institute for Finance and Local Economy – IFEL, Court of Auditors , Ministry of the Interior), indicate a recovery, in recent years, of the phenomena of financial criticality, highlighted first of all by the picture offered of the various deficit situations and confirmed by the dynamics of the failures.
For the president of the National Council of Accountants, Elbano de Nuccio “the current legislation is inadequate. With the bill on the revision of the laws on the organization of local authorities, controls in municipalities under 15 thousand inhabitants and the tools for the timely emergence of imbalanced situations must be strengthened”.
According to what emerges from the calculations of the accountants, updated to April this year, among the 257 predisposition procedures currently open, those concentrated in the area clearly prevail South (68%) compared to Center (16%) and others North (16%). The data from Campania and Sicily stand out above all (43 municipalities involved in each of the two regions, equal to 34% of the total). 36 in Calabria (14%), 35 in Lazio (14%) and 22 in Puglia (9%). The number of municipalities involved is drastically reduced in some regions of the Centre-North (2 in Emilia-Romagna and only 1 in Trentino Alto-Adige, Marche and Veneto).
From the accountants’ research it also emerges that 53% of the entities in I predict has a population less than 5,000 inhabitants (of which 28% of entities with a population of less than 2,000 inhabitants) and is concentrated for almost 50% in the Southern geographical area, while 46% is grouped in classes with a population between 5,000 and 100,000 inhabitants, also in this 44% of the cases are concentrated in the South. Only 2% of the entities fall into the demographic classes with a population exceeding 100,000 inhabitants and these are provincial capitals located mainly in the South (Alessandria, Andria, Avellino, Brindisi, Imperia, Lecce, Messina, Naples, Palermo, Pescara, Potenza, Rieti). The data for procedures in the North, which represent 12%, is concentrated in municipalities with a population of less than 5,000 inhabitants.
The phenomenon of the 213 municipalities in difficulty is interesting 13 regions and is concentrated in Campania with 47 cases (22%), Calabria with 52 (24%) e Sicily with 69 (32%). Also interesting are the data from Lazio (15), Puglia (8) e Abruzzo (7). The percentage data also in this case represent a greater concentration of failures in the southern regions and in Sicily: crossing the country we note that in some regions of the North-West (Valle d’Aosta), the North-East (Trentino Alto-Adige , Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto), the Center (Umbria) and in Sardinia there are no default situations, while the southern area (South-West) and the islands (Sicily) represent an area that incorporates approximately 90% of failing institutions, many of which are now chronic.
THE regional data examined in the period 2012-2024, in addition to highlighting the cases of 5 entities that declared bankruptcy almost 10 years ago (therefore well beyond the duration foreseen by the law), they show an increase in failures in the 2018-2023 time frame with a fluctuating trend i.e. a peak in 2019 (35), a slight decline in the two-year period 2020-2021 due to the extraordinary Covid measures and a recovery in 2023 (29). As for the predisposed entities, also for this case almost 45% of the cases concern entities with a population of less than 5,000 inhabitants (and among these 24% represent entities with a population of less than 2,000 inhabitants), while 55% are grouped in the classes with a population between 5,000 and 99,999 inhabitants. In municipalities with a population exceeding 100,000 inhabitants, the only provincial capital municipality is Catania.
“The picture outlined by this research – states the president of the National Council of Accountants, Elbano de Nuccio – shows the strategic importance of identifying procedures operational capable of guaranteeing the continuity of the activity of the organization or institution. An urgency which, in the case of Municipalities, is increased by the fact that the bankruptcy, in addition to hindering the orderly repayment of debts and, therefore, the economic health of suppliers in various capacities, interrupts the democratic functioning of the local authority and the continuity of the bodies elected”.
“The inadequacy of the current predisposition rules to deal with it is now known – he adds –: the various regulatory interventions that have been introduced in an uneven manner in recent years have created even more confusion in a matter that requires harmonious and structural intervention necessary to remedy the imperfect functioning of the entire chain of rules that should prevent the occurrence of default”.
In view of the possible next publication of the drawing scheme of the law on the revision of the laws onorganization of local authorities, accountants put forward some proposals. First of all, that of a review of the deficit parameters and of the institutions through the identification of more stringent indicators capable of promptly highlighting situations of imbalance and responding to their preventive warning function on the accounting situation of the institutions. The professionals also propose the introduction of a “financial health rating” and a strengthening of controls in municipalities with fewer than 15,000 inhabitants, expanding the number of entities for which the audit body must be established in a collegial form based on the demographic threshold”.