PNRR, Inarsind to ANAC: projects must be entrusted with adequate compensation

ANAC intervenes to clarify to the Contracting Authorities that the amount to be set as a basis for the tender for the assignment of technical and economic feasibility designs must be calculated considering the real design content required.

Inarsind, the Trade Union Association of Freelance Architects and Engineers, asks for this, contacting the National Anti-Corruption Authority and urging it to “intervene in order to clarify that the amount to be placed on the basis of the tender - for the assignment of the technical and economic feasibility projects provided for by art. 48 of Legislative Decree 77/2021 - with reference to the services provided for by Ministerial Decree of 17 June 2016, must be carefully evaluated by Contracting Authorities without them being limited to the nominal definition of the design level, but they determine it considering the real content required, taking into account the Ministerial Guidelines

It all stems from the fact that art. 48 of Legislative Decree 77/2021, as part of the measures envisaged to allow a rapid implementation of the PNRR, provided for the use of integrated contracts - executive design plus works - based on a technical and economic feasibility project.

“However, in reality - reads the note - the correspondence with the first of the three design levels provided for by the Procurement Code is limited to the simple definition because in July 2021 the Ministry of Mobility and Sustainable Infrastructure drafted the Guidelines for the drafting of the technical and economic feasibility project to be based on the award of public works contracts of the PNRR and the PNC (Art. 48, paragraph 7, of Legislative Decree 77/2021, converted into law 108/2021), providing this specific design activity, provided for the PNRR, to be based on a subsequent integrated contract, with specific characteristics, so much so that they have explained them in a substantial documentation (51 pages) that leads, in reality, to the next - and more advanced - levels

“All this - explains Inarsind - happened without, at the same time, being associated with the performance required by the specific guidelines referring to Ministerial Decree of 17 June 2016, which dictates the parameters for evaluating compensation for architects and engineers. On the other hand, the latter are frequently faced with calls for the assignment of architectural and engineering services for the assignment of Technical and Economic Feasibility Designs (to be based on integrated contracts) to which highly underestimated services are attributed both in terms of amount and for the time expected for their execution

Inarsind “places unpretentious emphasis on the protection of the legitimate economic interests of Freelancers, but it also points out that underestimating the economic factor and the other no less important factor, that of the time to dedicate to the very delicate phase of design, can lead the country to a failure, compromising interventions to which great importance is attached to its progress.”