Increase of 692 thousand euros for direct collaboration offices of the minister of culture: it is controversy

Controversy has erupted over a paragraph of the Decree on the reorganization of ministries (officially Decree-Law No. 22 of March 1, 2021, “Urgent provisions on the reorganization of the attributions of ministries”), the measure that, among other things, enshrines the birth of the “Ministry of Culture” and revives the Ministry of Tourism that had been abolished in 1993. The offending paragraph is number 4 of Article 6, which reads, “The financial envelope allocated to the needs referred to in Article 5, paragraph 5, of Prime Minister’s Decree No. 169 of December 2, 2019, shall be increased by a total of 692,000 euros annually as of the year 2021.” Decree No. 169 is that of the so-called “Franceschini counter-reform,” or the ministry’s new organizational regulations, and in Article 5 it lists the direct collaboration offices of the minister.

The offices of direct collaboration are those that “exercise the powers of support of the body of political direction and liaison between it and the administration”: they are the cabinet office, the minister’s secretariat, the legislative office, the press office, and the secretariats of the Undersecretaries of State. Paragraph 5 of the article specifies the economic treatment of direct cooperation offices, which therefore, as a result of the decree-law adopted by the Draghi government, increases by a total of 692,000 euros per year, already starting this year.

The substantial increase for the direct collaboration offices of Minister Dario Franceschini immediately sparked criticism from the opposition. “Dario Franceschini,” comments Riccardo Zucconi, a deputy of Fratelli d’Italia and the party’s group leader in the House’s Productive Activities Committee, “has lost the Tourism Delegation but, apparently, someone has thought of giving him a nice surprise in the Law Decree on the Reorganization of Ministries: an increase of 692 thousand euros per year in the budget for his Office of direct collaboration at Mibac. While Italy is going through a very difficult time, with thousands of families and businesses forced to flounder in the magnum sea of emergency, especially in the Minister’s areas of relevance such as Culture, Entertainment and before that Tourism where he has distinguished himself for total immobilism, we find it unacceptable and shameful that such large sums can be allocated to increase only the salaries of Minister Franceschini’s direct collaboration office. Fratelli d’Italia asks the government to withdraw this obscene paragraph from the Dl Reordering Ministries, a perfect example of squandering and unjustified privileges, and to have a minimum of decorum and dutiful sobriety in managing the public machine by concentrating scarce resources in supporting the real needs of Italians.”

Subsequent developments are now awaited: the decree has already been approved and published in the Official Gazette, but its conversion into law with amendments is always possible within 60 days.

In the photo, Culture Minister Dario Franceschini.

Increase of 692 thousand euros for direct collaboration offices of the minister of culture: it is controversy

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