New Italian “Codice Appalti”: main news from "Correttivo"

Last 13th of April the correction amendment to the legislative decree no. 50/2016, known as Codice Appalti (Code on public procurements) has been approved, so terminating the parliamentary process that began last year. This correction will be published in the Italian “Gazzetta Ufficiale” (official journal) within the April 19.

Among the main changes introduced by the Corrective, of relevance are:

-       The obligation of the Contracting authorities to refer to Decree Parameters (Ministerial Decree of June 17, 2016) to determine remuneration for professionals.

-       The number of companies that have to be invited to negotiated procedures, in case of works worth between 150 thousands of euro and a million, was increased to 15.

-       It was confirmed that the company who won the procedure, can not sublet more than 30% of the total value of work. It was also stated that if value exceeds € 5.2 million, or whenever there is a risk of infiltration, it is necessary to indicate, along with the offer, three available and qualified subcontractors.

-       For routine maintenance works, was set a 2.5 million of euro limit for the use of a simplified project.

-       In regional and municipality context, it was planned to reserve a certain number of contracts with a value less than a million of euro to small and medium sized enterprises. According to the experts, there is a risk that this provision could be rejected by European Union.

-       In order to get a hold on payments of the PA (public administration), it was provided that PA has to issue certificates within 45 days from the approval of the work progress.

The report that accompanies the corrective, clarifies that the changes are set to improve the regulatory system without damaging it, with the aim of improving the homogeneity, clarity and adequacy, in order to effectively achieve the objective of the development of the sector, which was the aim of the decree. Government’s aim is to speed up the allocation of public contracts ensuring, at the same time, greater transparency and impartiality.