Bonisoli responds to all accusations with a letter: not a reform nor a counter-reform, but necessary changes

In a lengthy seven-page letter, dated Sept. 2 and addressed to all employees of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Minister Alberto Bonisoli responded to all the accusations that have been levelled in recent weeks at the ministry reform he has promoted. Bonisoli began by pointing out that the criticisms have often concerned “aspects that do not correspond to reality,” leading one to think “that not everyone has read the text thoroughly,” and therefore according to the minister there is a need for “clarity on the organizational changes introduced, explaining their rationale and objectives, and proudly claiming both the method used and the results already achieved.”

Starting with the way in which the measures should be identified: for Bonisoli it is neither a reform nor a counter-reform, but “some necessary changes that every complex organization - such as the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities - is dynamically required to introduce in order to function at its best.” The minister then rejects accusations of “haste,” given that publication of the reform and signing of the implementing decrees fell in August: “the DPCM that constitutes its main component,” Bonisoli writes, “was presented in the Council of Ministers and unanimously approved on June 19, 2019 (within the deadline of June 30 expressly provided by Decree-Law No. 86/2018) to be registered by the Court of Auditors on July 26. The publication in the Official Gazette was dated August 7; therefore, the measure came into force on the following day, August 22.” Day by which some consequential measures were to be “adopted, acts due, aimed at guaranteeing the functionality of the offices, such as the decree on the articulation of the central structures of the Ministry and the decree on the new structure of the museums.” For Bonisoli, it was “a responsible political-administrative action, developed in the strictest respect for the timing and institutional rules.”

Accusations of lack of grassroots involvement and lack of discussion were also rejected: “the reorganization,” Bonisoli wrote, “was the result of a transparent exercise, which began in September 2018, through a series of meetings with Superintendents, Regional Secretaries, Directors of Museums, Libraries and Archives,” as well as with “a group of parliamentarians,” “sector associations,” and “trade unions.” From the unions would also have come “many ideas,” some of which were explored in a constructive manner according to the minister, who is keen to point out that "the entire process was developed ’unshackling it from any corporative logic and applying parameters inspired by principles of rationality and efficiency of the Public Administration, preserving as the ultimate goal always the protection of cultural heritage as declined by Article 9 of the Constitution.’

As for the contents, Bonisoli writes that “it was decided to review, with a critical but constructive spirit, the organizational transformations introduced since 2014, aiming to improve management capabilities, thanks to greater levels of coordination and control, especially of a qualitative type and based more on example than on sanction.” Hence, “the revision of certain lines of command between the center and the territory, the reconfiguration of the General Secretariat and of the modes of interaction with autonomous museums, the revitalization of digitization and technological innovation policies to promote training and research, the enhancement of contemporary forms of creativity, through greater attention to the world of applied arts including fashion and design.” All aimed at designing a "stronger governance, oriented above all to pander to the requests and needs of the territorial offices and aimed at fostering attentive interlocutions and timely responses, including in the management of international relations.“ On the fact that the Secretary General will coordinate loans abroad, Bonisoli recalls that also according to the 2014 reform ”all Museum Directors were to act in coherence with the Ministry’s directives and, where of general executive level, were subject to the coordination of the Secretary General.“ The new line ”does not realize limitations to the prerogatives of the Directors but, by assigning the coordination of loans to the Service in charge of the care of international, European and UNESCO relations, it tends exclusively to support general cognitive purposes and objectives of cultural diplomacy." Bonisoli also points out that such coordination already exists in France.

On the fact that the General Secretariat coordinates communication, for the minister it is a measure that “fills a serious lack for the Ministry, that of not having an institutional communication structure decoupled from the political level, since such activities were only taken care of by the press office of direct collaboration of the minister (with good peace to the principle of separation between political and administrative activities),” thus “no centralist spirit,” but “only measures aimed at ensuring greater levels of rationality, efficiency and economy of administrative action.” On the redesign of the secretariats, the minister writes that “they have been rethought in more flexible terms, where, in the face of greater geographical extensions, certain functions have been remodeled, also in order to overcome some critical issues in the area of protection.” On the other hand, with regard to the new General Directorate for Contracts and Concessions, Bonisoli points out, “in addition to guaranteeing coordination on procedures and the most appropriate legal instruments regulating public-private relations, it will take care of the most complex and relevant procedures and proceedings” in order to “optimize the capacity expenditure capacity of the Ministry, save resources allocated to central purchasing bodies and enhance internal expertise,” and finally to respond “to principles of economy and rationalization” and to “systematize the activities in charge of the contracting stations, also to prevent any phenomena of illegality and corruption.” On the issue of constraints, “it should be pointed out,” the minister writes, “that to be brought back to the center is only the final adoption of the measures; the initiation of the same, the preliminary stages and the interlocution with stakeholders, remain anchored to the territories and, therefore, to the Superintendencies.”

Several reasons led to the reorganization of museums. The vision that inspired it is “that of a national system of state museums, endowed with managerial autonomy, with a strong vocation for research, open to citizenship, which everyone can access, in which an adequate number of civil servants work whose roles and functions are commensurate with their proven competence, and where the available resources are shared so that there are no series A and series B museums.” For this reason, Bonisoli points out, there has been a move away from museum poles, “rethinking them according to the logic of territorial networks that are also useful for supporting smaller institutions.” The networks “will undergo, in the future, a subsequent evolution, refining their thematic coherence and achieving, over time, managerial autonomy, in parallel with the necessary increase in managerial positions that the Ministry needs to strengthen its action throughout the national territory.” The autonomy of museums of national importance "not only remains, but is increased, through measures that do not affect financial autonomy, nor the principle of the identification of Directors through procedures that allow for the identification of candidates with the necessary skills to manage a modern Museum Institution, intervening differently on governance in terms of simplification and rationalization declined according to the principles of Article 9 of the Constitution. Choices that may also involve the creation of real museum hubs endowed with a strengthened management capacity, as in Milan and Florence, or the evolution of individual museums into thematic networks spread throughout the territory, possibly endowed with management autonomy, as in the case of the Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome.“ Solidarity between autonomous mnuseums and other cultural institutions would be guaranteed ”thanks to a higher percentage of redistribution of revenues."

Bonisoli concludes by underscoring his perplexity at the “uproar aroused by the Ministry’s reorganization measures.” “Perhaps there have been - in good faith - difficulties of interpretation,” the minister writes. “I hope,” he concludes, "that the critical positions recorded do not depend on the fact that we have affected, in a genuinely innovative spirit, certain established status quo, for example in relation to the new “General Directorate for Contracts and Concessions’, about which little or nothing has been read in the press. Yet we had the determination to go in a very precise direction, according to principles, already known to the Bray Commission of 2013 and repeatedly recalled by ANAC, whose application will finally be able to bring order to a sector in which it is necessary to ensure uniform standards of efficiency, transparency and competitiveness, as well as respect for legality in all its forms. MiBAC is ready to take up these challenges, continuing the efforts already underway, first and foremost that of new staff recruitment, reversing the trend of recent years. In fact, reviewing the design of an organizational structure and configuring effective processes is not enough without human capital, around which to nurture processes aimed at organizational welfare and training, investing all the necessary resources.”

The full text of the letter has been published on the MiBAC website.

Pictured: minister Alberto Bonisoli

Bonisoli responds to all accusations with a letter: not a reform nor a counter-reform, but necessary changes

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