Anticorruption Training Project Update.
Law no. 190/2012 bearing “Provisions for the prevention and suppression of corruption and illegality in public administration,” identifies staff training as one of the most relevant management tools for combating corruption. Article 1, paragraph 59 of the aforementioned Law (the so-called Law on Anticorruption), verbatim states that “The provisions for the prevention of corruption referred to in paragraphs 1 to 57 of this article, of direct implementation of the principle of impartiality referred to in Article 97 of the Constitution, are applied in all public administrations referred to in Article 1, paragraph 2, of Legislative Decree No. 165 of March 30, 2001, as amended.”
On the subject of training, Paragraph 8 of Article 1 prescribes that the corruption prevention officer shall, by January 31 of each year, define “appropriate procedures for selecting and training, in accordance with Paragraph 10, employees to work in areas particularly exposed to corruption. ….”; Paragraph 10 further stipulates that the Corruption Prevention Officer shall also: “(c) identify personnel to be included in the training programs referred to in Paragraph 11,” that is, training on issues of ethics and legality; and, finally, Paragraph 44, headed “code of conduct,” prescribes that “public administrations shall annually verify the state of application of the codes and organize personnel training activities for the knowledge and proper application of the codes.” In the Legislature’s view, therefore, adequate training of personnel fosters, on the one hand, greater awareness in decision-making, as broader and deeper knowledge reduces the risk that illegal action may be carried out unwittingly; on the other hand, it enables the acquisition of
specific skills for carrying out activities in areas identified as having a higher risk of corruption.For this reason, numerous sections of the Court of Auditors (ex multis, Court of Auditors, Emilia Romagna section, no. 276 of 2013) have expressed the view that “in light of the regulatory framework referred to and the safeguarding of the constitutional values enshrined in Art. 97 of the Constitution to which this type of training activity is also functional, the mandatory nature of its performance is noted and, given the absence of discretion regarding the authorization of the related expenditure, in the case in point we are outside the scope of application referred to in paragraph 13 of Art. 6 of Decree Law 78/2010”; therefore, in the organization of anti-corruption training courses, municipalities may legitimately derogate from the expenditure ceiling defined by the aforementioned legislation.