The Court of Auditors ‘resumes’ the Public Administration: “Low objectives and rewards without meritocratic prerequisites for employees”

The control concerns the rewards recognized by the central PAs in the three-year period 2020-2022

ROME – The check carried out on the bonuses awarded to central PA employees in the three-year period 2020-2022 highlights the widespread indication of particularly low and self-referential objectives, in addition to the choice of unchallenging performance indicators. It is what the Court of Auditors finds in the analysis, approved with Resolution no. 62/2024/G, which the Central Control Section on the management of State administrations conducted on the effectiveness of the System for measuring and evaluating the performance of public employees, provided for by Legislative Decree no. 150/2009.

The results that emerged – specifies the accounting judiciary – highlight the upward flattening of staff evaluations, the consequent attribution of bonuses without adequate meritocratic prerequisites and the insufficient effectiveness of the measurement system and evaluation, unsuitable for determining in a uniform and fully adequate manner the quality of the performance of public employees.
If the founding logic of the Independent Evaluation Bodies is linked to the unification of the tasks previously carried out by the services or by the internal control offices of the PA and the standardization of performance verification methods, the absence of truly homogeneous parameters in the current system – concludes the Court – is a risk of removal from the inspiring purposes of the standard.