government bodies should submit any requests for more funding by drawing up a list of priorities and
putting forward saving proposals to offset the impact of higher funding requests.
The new accounting system SIOPE: a grip on the cash flows
In recent years the implementation of fiscal and administrative devolution and the subsequent focus shift
in public finance on local authorities has highlighted the need to directly access timely and reliable
information on financial flows and stocks also with a view to better meeting the EU requirements on
compliance with the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact.
SIOPE (Sistema informativo sulle operazioni degli enti pubblici – information system on operations of
public entities) is an effective tool for this objective; it was introduced by the 2003 Budget (Law No.
289/2002) and is an effective tool for monitoring public accounts.
SIOPE’s main contributions are:
(i) it improves accounting information in terms of quality and surveying time compared to the
present quarterly data of cash flows;
(ii) it eliminates the differences existing between the accounting systems currently used by
individual entities through the use of a standard code for the same type of entity.SIOPE allows real-time surveying of the borrowing requirements of general government thus providing a
more accurate drawing up of the quarterly statistics of national accounting.
SIOPE’S implementation included a number of stages: at the beginning in 2003 it was applied to state
budget payments, in 2005 it involved 49 entities including regional and local authorities as well as
universities, in 2006 it involved the regional, provincial and municipal authorities with more than 20,000
inhabitants as well as universities, in 2007 it was extended to include municipalities with less than 20,000
inhabitants, mountain municipalities, unions of municipalities and consortia of local authorities and
research institutions; as of January 1st, 2008 SIOPE will also survey health authorities.
SIOPE is an “interactive” system, i.e. all the information gathered can be accessed also by the entities
being surveyed, allowing the latter to devise budget policies and monitor the use of resources more
easily.
The system feeds information into an archive at the end of each working day: data flows into the archive
arranged in aggregates on the basis of codes identifying the revenues and expenditure of the state and the
other public entities.
The archive is the core of an information system in which all logged-in users interact with SIOPE
through a two-way system: data flows from users to the archive (archive feeding) and from the archive to
its users (use of data for public-finance purposes and to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of
entities).
Bank of Italy has been entrusted with the task of developing and managing the SIOPE information
system through a special agreement it entered into with the Ministry of the Economy and Finance that
decides on how the system can be accessed.
SIOPE may give a relevant contribution to the quality of fiscal surveillance, since it can give also early
signals on the course of fiscal policy, thus giving a significant contribution to fiscal analysis and allowing
policy makers to better calibrate their measures in case of any deviation from plans.
Fiscal federalism
The 2001 constitutional law reform has shaped the legislative framework for federalism system.
The constitutional reform defines the exclusive central government competencies and the concurrent
areas of spending and legislative power to be shared both at the central and regional levels (see table 3).